The Young Adventurer's Club
by artemisgirl
Summary: "Bored by unchallenging classes? Sick of sitting around, doing nothing grand? Eager to learn forgotten magics and gain power beyond your wildest dreams? Join the Young Adventurer's Club now!" A mysterious poster for a new club catches Severus' eye. Little does he know... What the club has planned will challenge everything he knows and change the course of his entire life.
1. Chapter 1

Author's Notes: Many, many, _many_ thanks to Avalon, beta extrodinaire. Young!Severus/Hermione.

**Chapter 1**

When seventh-year Severus Snape came down the stairs that morning into the Slytherin common room, there was a murmuring crowd around the bulletin board. Mildly intrigued, Severus elbowed his way to the front to read the new notice posted on it.

**_Bored by unchallenging classes?_**

**_Sick of sitting around, doing nothing grand?_**

**_Need an escape from reality?_**

**_Eager to learn forgotten magics and gain power beyond your wildest dreams?_**

**_Join _**

**_The Young Adventurer's Club!_**

**Author's Notes: **Many, many, _many_ thanks to Avalon, beta extrodinaire, who reacted with extreme nonchalance when I contacted her a week before deadline about betaing a 60k word fic and encouraged me that it was actually good.

**_Applications and more information below. _**

Severus raised an eyebrow. Young Adventurer's Club? He'd never heard of such a thing. Curious, he grabbed an application to read over at breakfast.

The Great Hall was buzzing when Severus got there. Every house had gotten a recruitment poster, it seemed. Severus took a seat next to the Lestrange brothers, who were debating over their own forms.

"It explicitly asks 'Are you a Death Eater?'" Rodolphus said. "I don't _care_ what the form claims – it's got to be a Ministry scheme."

"There's no way the Ministry would do this," Rabastan argued. "Promote 'forgotten magics'? Please."

"Snape!" Rodolphus said, turning to him. "Have you seen this?" Severus held up his own form in a wordless response, and Rodolphus nodded. "Good, good. Let us know what you think of it after you look it over?"

"Right." Severus helped himself to some toast and marmalade before settling down to read the form as he ate.

**_The Young Adventurer's Club is a group for young witches and wizards interested in adventuring. Members will explore lost wizarding ruins, learn forgotten magics, find lost artifacts, and develop new spells, theories, potions, and amulets. Members may face danger on a semi-regular basis and should be prepared accordingly. _**

**_The Young Adventurer's Club is unaffiliated with any other organization, including, but not limited to, the Ministry of Magic, Hogwarts, the Order of the Phoenix, the Death Eaters, or Dumbledore's Army. Hogwarts is allowing the Young Adventurer's Club to recruit on school grounds as a courtesy only, not as an endorsement. _**

"Dumbledore's Army?" Severus said aloud.

"Never heard of it," Adrian Avery said. "Bit of a queer name, isn't it?"

"The Gryffindors don't seem to know what all's up with it either," Rabastan pointed out, smirking. "They're probably hurt that they weren't asked to join the Headmaster's arse-licking club."

Severus glanced up. Several of the Gryffindors looked rather put-out, and a snicker went round the Slytherin table. Severus bent his head and continued reading.

**_Because of the nature of the Young Adventurer's Club, certain membership requirements apply:_**

**_You must not be a member of the Ministry of Magic, Order of the Phoenix, or Death Eaters at age 17._**

**_You must not be pregnant, have an addiction of any sort, or be soul-sick. _**

**_You must be willing to follow directions without the intention behind the directive being explained to you. _**

**_You must not have a history of mental illness, depression, or suicidal thoughts and tendencies. _**

**_You must be willing to temporarily pause your life as you know it. Temporally, you may resume your life after the Young Adventurer's Club has no further need for you as an Adventurer, should you so desire. _**

**_Additionally, membership is currently restricted to those 17 years of age. If you are not yet 17, we encourage you to apply when you come of age. If you were once 17 and are no longer, you already received the opportunity to apply. _**

"_Exactly_ 17?" Severus said, incredulous. "What's the reasoning there?"

"_No_ idea," Rodolphus said. "And I definitely didn't see these posters here last year."

"Maybe the club was full last year and didn't have any spots open?" Avery ventured. "Who knows?"

"They better still have some open _next _year," Regulus Black groused from across the table. "_I_ want to join..."

**_If you meet out membership requirements and the Young Adventurer's Club sounds like something you would like to be a part of, we encourage you to fill out our membership application below._**

**_Your full birth name_**

**_Any aliases, nicknames, or misspellings you have used, been called, or might be listed under_**

…

"Done?" Rodolphus asked him as he looked up. Severus nodded.

"Isn't it weird?" Rabastan butted in.

"It's definitely out there," Severus conceded. "Did all the houses get them?"

"Yeah, even the Hufflepuffs. The Gryffindors were angry to see that we'd all gotten them, too," Rodolphus said, smirking.

"The wording is very odd," Severus continued, glancing back over it. "'Be willing to _pause_ your life'? What on Earth does that mean?"

"Put everything else on hold, I suppose," Macnair said, joining the conversation. "I expect you'll have to drop everything to join up, and then when you're all done, come back to school."

"They're recruiting students, though," Rodolphus pointed out. "Surely they don't expect students to join up with a shadowy cause and neglect their studies without knowing why?"

Macnair grinned at him, revealing several missing teeth. "Why not?"

"The restrictions are odd as well," Severus said. "No pregnant witches or addicts, but no restrictions against felons?"

"I suspect they didn't think many seventeen year-olds would be felons yet," Rodolphus retorted. "Besides, they can always run your name through the public records and deny you if a record comes up."

"Perhaps," Severus equivocated. "All in all, though, it's very odd. And unaffiliated with any group, no less? Or so they claim..."

"Still, though," Avery said. "The chance to go on a real adventure? Learn forgotten magic and gain crazy amounts of personal power?"

Rodolphus snorted. "There's already someone who can provide you with that, Avery," he reminded him. "And he doesn't hide behind mysterious applications like this."

"I know that!" Avery protested. "But I can't get my mark until I graduate, right? So until then, I'm still technically not a member of the-"

"Are you insane?" Severus hissed. "Don't discuss that at the breakfast table!"

They all glared at Avery, who fell silent.

"I was only saying," he muttered, flushing. After a long moment, they turned the weight of their collective glares away from him.

"It could be an advantage," Rodolphus considered. "If we learn forgotten magics and gain more power _before_ joining up, think of what a boon we'd be for his cause-! I wonder who gets the finished applications?"

"Fill it out and find out," Rabastan said, elbowing him. "The common room poster said applicants have a week to submit their papers."

Rodolphus scowled at him. "Maybe I will."

Severus rolled his own application up and tucked it into his robes. Maybe he would as well.

Severus did not look at the application again until classes were over. Taking his book bag with him, he headed down to the lake to look it over.

_**1.**_ **_Your full birth name_**

**_2. Any aliases, nicknames, or misspellings you have used, been called, or might be listed under_**

That was easy enough. Severus put down _Severus Tobias Snape_ under the first question and skipped to question 3.

**_3. Your O.W.L. Scores_**

Just as he put his quill down to answer, question 2 began to glow red.

**_We detect you have neglected to include all relevant information,_**the application proclaimed, brilliant red ink scrawling itself across the parchment. **_Applications missing information will be discarded unread and not considered for membership._**

Severus stared. A nickname or alias? Even his mother had called him Severus. Unless...

With a scowl, he put down _Snivellus_.

**_We detect you have neglected to include all relevant information._** Red text pulsed on the application once again. **_Applications missing information will be discarded unread and not considered for membership._**

Severus barely resisted the urge to chuck the scroll into the lake.

_Another _nickname? He didn't _have_ one. No one called him anything but 'Severus' or 'Snape', save the bloody Gryffindors, and he's already _put_ their bloody moniker for him down already. He was the only one who'd ever referred to himself by anything other than his name, and even then, he'd never _told_ anyone...

He glanced back over the question.

**_2. Any aliases, nicknames, or misspellings you have used..._**

With a sigh, he picked up his quill once more, almost ashamed, and jotted down _The Half-blood Prince_.

The glaring red text faded away.

Severus shivered despite himself. How could the parchment know what name he'd put in his Potion's textbook?

Pushing the matter from his mind, he went on.

**_3. Your O.W.L. Scores_**

Severus put down his O.W.L. Scores, the N.E.W.T. Classes he was taking, and what his strongest and weakest subjects were in school without much hesitation. He doubted Divination or Arithmancy would be of much use during adventuring, anyway. He hesitated over the next question.

_**7. **_**_What is the most advanced spell you have cast?_**

He could cast every spell in the seventh year standard book of spells, but none of those were really _advanced_. He was certain he'd be able to cast an Unforgivable, if he tried, but the paper asked what he'd_ already _cast, not what he _could_ cast. He paused a moment, before putting down _Legilimens_.

_**8. **_**_What useful skills do you have that would come in handy in an adventurous, survival-type situation_**?

Severus smirked. _This_ had been more the type of question he had expected.

He was impressed to see the scroll magically expand his answer space as he painstakingly detailed his potions modification skills, Defense Against the Dark Arts ability, his intelligence, his quickness at learning new skills, his reflexes, his stealth ability, and (after hesitating), his base theory experience with the Dark Arts.

_**9. **_**_What hidden or secret abilities or skills do you have?_**

He hesitated only a moment before detailing everything he could think of, from his Occlumency skills and skills as a Legilimens to his unregistered Animagus form to his hard-worn immunity to certain poisons to his ambidextrousness.

He'd never admitted any of them to anyone, really. He paused, looking over the paper, before continuing. He could always just not submit the application and burn it, if he wanted.

_**10. **_**_Why should we pick you?_**

He hesitated.

They probably wanted another explanation of his abilities, and example of how his personality and determination would help overcome insurmountable odds. They probably wanted an outlined list of pros and cons for choosing him, and all the cons thoughtfully negated with well thought-out work-arounds.

Severus glanced sideways.

Lily was there, reading from a Charms book as Potter, Black, and Lupin laughed together, filling out their own forms. Her eyes caught his and his breath caught in his throat. Her eyes seemed to cool and she turned back to her own book, her demeanor one of disgust.

A sinking feeling filled his stomach, and Severus turned to glance at his other side.

Rodolphus and Rabastan were there, arguing as they filled out their own forms. Bellatrix Black had gotten one too and was filling it out, though Severus knew she definitely wouldn't qualify with her mother's history of mental illness. Macnair was telling Avery what to put down as they filled out their applications. Macnair flicked his wand, and a small replica of the Dark Mark hung in the air for a moment, before dissipating into the air. Avery looked impressed and bent to write on his form once more.

Severus turned back to his own form, feeling sick to his stomach, the form looking up at him mockingly.

**_Why should we pick you?_**

Before he knew what had happened, he'd picked up his quill and scribbled an answer.

_Because I need this._

He stared at his answer, the black strokes stark against the dull cream of the form.

It was frightening, to see the truth of his situation spelled out so starkly.

But it was true.

Severus would never fit in with the Gryffindors, with the goody two-shoes and arrogance of the Potters and Sirius Blacks and Lily Evans of the world. Dumbledore's Dark Lord resistance club was practically formed with them, and he'd never be welcome there, even if he wanted to join.

He'd be welcomed among the Death Eaters, he knew. The Dark Lord only cared that a person craved power and was willing to work for it. Severus never shied away from hard work to master some new skill. There were other things about the Death Eaters that made him shy away. They were things that made him hesitate, though he never let it slip to the others... his concerns about the single-mindedness of blood purity, which seemed scientifically proven to be false; the Dark Lord's insistence on Marking each follower, his demand for complete and total obedience, his horrible wrath if angered.

Neither option was appealing. Here, the application was offering a chance to escape, to put his life on hold and not have to choose...

Feeling ill with his own bravery at telling the truth, Severus went on.

**_Please answer "yes" or "no" to the following questions:_**

**_Have you ever cast an Unforgivable?_**

**_Do you have hemophilia?_**

**_Do you carry a blood-based disease?_**

**_Are you anemic?_**

**_Are you sexist?_**

**_Do you believe in pureblood superiority?_**

**_Do you have any children?_**

**_Are you married?_**

**_Are you a vegetarian?_**

**_Do you have a Dark Mark?_**

No, no, no, no, no, no, no... Down he went, ticking off all the "no" boxes next to the questions. The questions seemed random and varied wildly. Some of them seemed almost Muggle in origin, asking him if he was on any prescription medications or had a pacemaker, but then the next were inextricably wizarding, asking if he'd every used a Time-Turner or studied Quantum Arithmancy. Down he went, ticking "no" for all the questions until he got to the last one.

**_If you are chosen for membership of the Young Adventurer's Club, do you agree to join?_**

That seemed a bit presumptuous, assuming he'd be willing to join up without asking any questions beforehand. Frowning, he checked "yes" anyway, only to see the ink disappear.

"What...?"

Skeptical, he tried again.

Once more, the ink bled from view, absorbed into the paper.

Severus regarded the paper uneasily. He had a bad feeling he knew what the paper wanted.

Trying not to think of all the Dark spells that could target him because of this, Severus bit his finger, winced, and let a single drop of blood fall onto the "yes" box.

The scroll rolled itself up and tied itself closed with a scarlet ribbon and leapt into the air. The scroll began spinning around and around rapidly, before it vanished in a burst of flame.

Severus was left staring at the slight bit of ash the scroll left behind as it drifted to the ground.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

After Transfiguration the next day, Severus dropped his textbook when he was putting his things away. He scowled and swept his belongings into his bag, before leaving the classroom.

"Oi! Snivellus!"

He'd been hoping to avoid them. Gritting his teeth, he walked faster down the hall.

"Snivellus!"

He edged his wand out of his holster, just in case.

"HEY SNAPE!"

Severus whirled around, wand at the ready. "What?!"

Sirius Black gave him a lazy smirk. "What?"

"Oi. We hear you applied for the Young Adventurer's Club," Potter said. "Did you?"

"What's it to you?" Severus snapped.

"Only 'cause we applied, and we were wondering what _you_ were thinking, applying," Black explained. "It's for adventurers, you know. Not really your thing. There'd be exploring, camping, and the next thing you know, your hair grease catches fire..."

They all roared with laughter, and Severus scowled.

"Oh, and you think they'll take _you?_" he spat. "Because _you_ have such valuable skills in a survival situation."

Potter looked affronted. "More than _you_ do."

"Oh really?" Snape sneered. "Look at the sorry lot of you. You have an irresponsible child who sleeps with anything on two legs, and quite possibly ones on four-" Sirius Black growled, and Lupin had to hold him back. "-an idiot who nearly failed Charms and can't see without his glasses, a delinquent who'd kill the entire club at full moon, and a sad-sack who hangs on the others' coattails." He sneered. "Did I miss anyone?"

"_Don't_," Lupin said, grabbing Sirius, who lunged for Severus. "He just wants us to get in trouble. Don't give him that power over you."

"You honestly think you're a better candidate for the Young Adventurer's Club that us?" Potter scoffed.

"I honestly think _you_ shouldn't be applying," Severus said. He gave Potter a disgusted look. "Are you really going to put your life on hold and leave everything behind? Every_one_ behind?"

Doubt flashed across Potter's face, as he glanced back at Lily, who was talking to Professor McGonagall in the hallway. He turned back to Severus, who raised an eyebrow, and Potter bristled.

"How do you know she didn't apply, same as us?" he challenged.

Snape scoffed. "She'd sooner join the Dark Lord than willingly stop going to classes. If you think she'd ever consider it, you clearly don't know her as well as I do."

"_Did,_" Potter corrected, glaring at him. "You certainly don't know her anymore."

"Nor do I want to," Severus lied. "Anyone who hangs around with degenerates like you isn't someone I'm interested in knowing."

Potter sputtered, and Severus strode away, not waiting for a response. He hoped he _did_ get in – if Potter and Black got in and he didn't, he'd _never_ hear the end of it unless he killed them in their sleep, and that seemed just a bit extreme.

Severus awoke to see a scroll hanging in the air in front of him with a green ribbon tied around it. He blinked up at it, before remembering the last time he'd seen a scroll hanging in the air. Suddenly awake, he lunged for it, ripping off the ribbon and shoving it open.

**_We are pleased to inform you, Severus Tobias Snape, that you have been chosen for membership to The Young Adventurer's Club._**

Severus stopped breathing.

He'd gotten in. He'd gotten _in._ He'd gotten in-!

Taking a deep breath to steady himself, he could not stifle the smirk spreading across his face. Even if Potter and Black had gotten in too, there wasn't a way for them to be _better_ than him, at this point. And...

He shivered. He had his way out of the Death Eaters, now. Hopefully, he'd learn enough lost magic to make sure no one would mess with him when he had to come back, and he could open his own Apothecary without worrying about being raided by either party.

Forcing his mind back to the issue at hand, Severus continued reading.

**_Membership begins on Friday at 5pm on the Hogwarts lawn. We suggest you take the following week to revisit your family and friends, as you may not see them for a long time._**

**_Enclosed, you will find a small bag with an Undetectable Extension Charm on it. Please put any belongings you would like to bring along with you into this bag. _**

**_In addition, new members are expected to obtain the following supplies prior to Friday:_**

**_1 heavy coat _**

**_4 sets of Muggle jeans..._**

Severus stopped. His supply list had been crossed out with a large X, and a hand-written note was scrawled in green ink below.

_Don't worry about getting supplies. I'll have someone else get your necessities for you, if you include your sizes on the enclosed form. Instead, I have something more important for you to do before Friday. Hopefully you'll be up to the challenge. _

_We need Blood Replenishing potion, and a lot of it – 300 doses, to be specific. Any doses you make over that number will be kept on-hand for emergencies. Take these galleons and get the supplies you need. You can store the finished potions inside the enclosed box. _

_Good luck, Severus. I look forward to meeting you in a week. _

A slow smile spread over his face.

He'd been singled out for his accomplishments _already_. Instead of scrambling about all week to get a bunch of clothes and camping supplies, he was to spend the week making potions.

Already, his mind was analyzing how many batches he could brew in a day with the available time he had. At ten doses to a cauldron, and three hours per cauldron, he'd need thirty cauldrons full, which would take ninety hours, unless he doubled up with the brewing...

Mind whirring, he picked up the heavy blue velvet sack that had fallen out of nowhere when he'd opened his letter and opened it.

"Merlin!"

There were galleons inside, as promised. _Many_ galleons. An absurd amount of galleons, it seemed. Hands shaking, he dumped the little bag out and began counting.

_300 bloody galleons!_

Whoever had sent him this letter knew the ingredients for a dose of Blood Replenishing potion only cost six sickles, and about four galleons per cauldron...

Unless...

He blinked.

Well, he _had_ been going on about his potion modification skills, hadn't he? He had not specifically cited the Blood Replenishing potion as one he'd altered and improved, but he'd explained his alterations to the Pepper-up potion, which had a similar base. Maybe they gave him so much extra money because they were expecting him to tinker and make the potions differently than was standard.

Curiosity sparked within him. Who were these people, that they put such trust in him already? Or was this a test, and if he failed, they'd kick him out?

Already resolving to impress the hell out of these people and pass their test with flying colors, Severus opened up the little box they'd sent. Inside were hundreds of little glass vials. Severus withdrew one, only to see it expand into a standard-sized potion bottle.

He smiled.

When he went down the Great Hall that morning, the hall was buzzing once again. Severus could see several classmates showing off their acceptance letters to their housemates, who looked on enviously. Smirking to himself, he sat down and helped himself to bacon.

"I hear the Young Adventurer's Club sent out acceptance letters today."

Severus looked up at Rodolphus, who was looking at him.

"You _hear_?" Severus repeated.

"I didn't get one," Rodolphus said shortly. He gestured over to his brother, who was grinning and shoving a piece of parchment in Macnair's face, who looked mutinous. "Did you?"

Severus took his time buttering his toast. "I did."

Rodolphus seemed to relax.

"_Good_," he said. "That makes three of us. Avery got in too."

"No one else?" Severus asked, keeping his tone casual.

"No. Bellatrix was livid." Rodolphus' face darkened. "I thought she was going to strangle Avery. No one really thinks much of his skill, you know."

"The Club must have seen something in him," Severus commented.

"Apparently. At least her cousin didn't get in." Rodolphus smirked. "Thank Merlin for small favors."

"I thought he couldn't," Severus pointed out. "He's not yet seventeen."

"Not Regulus," Rodolphus said, pointing across the hall with his fork. "Sirius."

Holding his breath, Severus turned.

Sirius was scowling down at his plate, and Potter was glaring at the wall. Lupin seemed to be trying to comfort them, a rolled-up scroll with a green ribbon setting next to his plate, but Sirius was having none of it. Lupin said something else, and Sirius snapped back at him, shoving two scrolls with blue ribbons at him angrily.

"What're those?" Severus asked Rodolphus. "He and Potter have scrolls. Did they send out rejections?"

"No," Rodolphus said. He smirked. "Technically, they got _wait listed_. They have the chance to appeal their decision on Friday. It's almost worse than being denied outright."

A small smile spread across Severus' face during the rest of breakfast, growing each time he glanced across the hall.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

Severus spent the week in a mad state of brewing, every spare second he had going to brewing the Blood-Replenishing potions the club needed. He'd managed to sneak out of the castle into Hogsmede between classes on Monday, and he'd spent the entire 300 galleons on ingredients and additional cauldrons.

In between brewing sessions, he noticed Sirius Black and Potter avoiding him. Word had gotten round that he'd been accepted where they hadn't, and they were off sulking, not wanting to have him gloat in their face. Severus still didn't know how Lupin had been given membership – it seemed like a bad idea to have a werewolf in the group, but he was sure whoever was running things had some plan of managing it.

The rest of the school still seemed in a bit of a buzz. Rodolphus was growing more and more skeptical of the organization, especially when Rabastan shared his supply list, revealing he needed sets of Muggle clothes to take with him. Rodolphus nearly yelled at him, but Avery had been quick to point out that they'd agreed to join with blood, and they didn't exactly have a way out of it at this point. Sighing, Rodolphus had conceded, wondering aloud if they were going to infiltrate a Muggle organization in order to blast it apart from the inside.

Rabastan had avoided Rodolphus' eyes while Rodolphus went on about killing Muggles. For one terrifying moment, his eyes caught Severus', before he nodded once and Severus' eyes widened as he realized.

No one who believed in blood prejudice or Pureblood superiority had been given membership.

That meant everyone in Slytherin house who had been accepted _didn't_.

Severus' eyes darted to Avery, who looked uncomfortable and was burying himself in his Charms notes. He glanced back to Rabastan, who shrugged, before telling his brother something else.

At least the ones who _did_ believe in Pureblood superiority didn't realize why they didn't get in. Severus suspected Rodolphus might have killed his brother, had that been the case.

Friday was upon them before he knew it. He'd packed all his belongings and organized all the potions he'd managed to make. He could scarcely concentrate all through Herbology and he knew Professor McGonagall could sense the undercurrent of excitement all through her class.

Finally, classes were over, and the entire seventh year spilled out onto the lawn, excited. Students who'd been chosen clutched their acceptance scrolls and their matching bags and huddled together in the front of the group. Everyone watched the lawn and looked around the grounds, curious where the group would come from.

The group's unease grew as it grew closer and closer to five o'clock, and the crowd grew quieter and quieter. They should have seen someone by now. Severus stood with his arms folded, a careful nonchalant expression on his face. Avery's eyes were darting every which was, and Rabastan just seemed too excited to care how the club would arrive.

Finally, at exactly five o'clock, the wind on the lawn seemed to pick up, and leaves started to swirl in a circular pattern. There was a hum in the air, and with a loud **_crack_**, suddenly, there were people on the lawn.

The crowd burst into discussion, and Severus watched, astonished, as the group that had just arrived began to spread out. They'd arrived with a group of them all holding hands in the center, and others holding onto their other hands. The people at the center the group were talking, and the others spread out and waited in small groups, eyes scanning the crowd.

"Severus, Severus!"

Severus turned to see a flash of black leap at him, and the next thing he knew, he was being hugged by someone.

"It's me, Severus! I got in!"

"_Regulus?_" Severus said, astonished. He pulled back to give him a good look. "How did you-?"

"I got in," Regulus said, grinning at him. "Only I got in the next year, when I was seventeen. Oh, here, I got your stuff."

Severus stared in amazement as Regulus pulled out a set of supplies for him out of his own bag. Regulus shrugged.

"I got everything in the sizes you put down, and I figured I knew your tastes well enough for the other stuff." He grinned at him. "But hey! We get to go adventuring together. How cool is that?"

"Regulus?" Rabastan said, coming over, astonished. "You're not 17. How did you get in?"

"No, no, you don't get it," Regulus said, shaking his head with a smile. "I'm from a year from now. I applied when I was seventeen, just like you. We're going backwards to get everyone."

"You're going backwards in _time_?" Severus couldn't believe it.

"Exactly." Regulus grinned.

"Excuse me! Excuse me! If I could have your attention, please!"

Severus turned, and Regulus ran back to his group. The little group of people who had been talking had stopped, and one boy had stepped to the front. Severus did a double-take. He looked almost exactly like James Potter, save a few years older.

"We will begin by calling out your names and assigning you to a squad. Please join your squad quickly. They will help fill you in on any questions you may have."

"Abbott, Emily!"

A Hufflepuff hurried forward, clutching her bag in her hand. The boy in the front checked his list.

"You're on Beta squad, with Ron," he told her. "He's the tall redheaded one over there – wave, Ron."

A tall, gangly guy with flaming red hair and bright freckles waved merrily, and Emily hurried over to join him.

"Avery, Adrian!"

Avery scurried up to the front, where the boy checked his list.

"Delta squad, with Draco. Wave, Draco."

A boy with platinum blond hair lazily raised a hand, and Avery went over to join him. Severus squinted. The boy looked like he could be related to Lucius Malfoy, who had graduated a few years previously.

"Dearborn, Caradoc!"

Severus watched as they went down the list one by one, everyone getting assigned to a different group leader who had been one of the spokes of the wheel when they'd arrived. Some of the squad leaders already had several people.

"Lestrange, Rabastan!"

There was a hush among the people who had arrived as Rabastan strode to the front, frowning at them. The boy in the front looked at his list and turned.

"Did we figure out where he's going yet?" he demanded.

There was a murmur from the other squad leaders. A tall, striking black boy stepped forward, his arms folded.

"Zeta squad, Lestrange, with me," he said, gesturing. "I'm Blaise."

The boy in the front continued. "Lupin, Remus!"

Severus watched as Lupin strode forward, looking nervous.

"You're on Alpha squad, with me," he said warmly, shaking his hand. "I'm Harry. Good to meet you."

Lupin muttered something back and looked slightly stunned, but moved to stand behind him with the two others already behind him.

"MacDonald, Mary!"

Severus glanced over at Potter and Black, both of whom looked mutinous. He wondered what their appeal would entail.

"Snape, Severus!"

_Finally_.

Severus strode forward, looking like he didn't care in the least about the whole thing. The boy at the front (Harry, was it?) paused when he arrived, then put his scroll away and took his hand in his.

"Snape, I'm very glad you chose to join us," he said earnestly. "It's an honor to meet you."

Severus stared at him, feeling slightly ill as he looked into his green eyes.

"You're in Omega squad, with Hermione. She's over there, with your friend Regulus."

Severus nodded. He glanced around, catching sight of Regulus, who was waving at him. He joined him.

"Omega squad!" Regulus said, clapping him on the back. "Excellent! We're the best squad to be on!"

"Then why are we last?" Severus drawled, looking at the other boy next to him.

"Because I got to pick."

Severus turned to see a young woman regarding him. She seemed only a little shorter than he was, which would make her just above average in height. She was slender and curvy, and Severus had to remind himself to look up from her breasts to her face. She had curly brown hair, amber brown eyes, and full lips.

Severus' breath caught in his throat. She was _very_ pretty.

She was looking at him with a thoughtful expression.

"You know the Greek Alphabet?" she inquired.

"I know enough to know Omega's the last letter," he told her. "Why would you want to be last, if you got to pick?"

She smiled a devious little grin, and Severus' heart skipped a beat.

"Because nothing comes after Omega," she said. "_Nothing_."

That sounded dangerously confident to Severus' ears, and more than a little sexy.

"May I introduce the rest of my squad?" she said. "I'm Hermione Granger. I'll be your squad leader. I'm very pleased to meet you."

She gave him a dazzling smile that made Severus' mind blank out for a moment, but she continued.

"Regulus Black, you already know, I presume? And this is Neville Longbottom," she said, extending an arm to the other boy.

"Good to meet you, sir," the boy called Neville said, shaking his hand firmly. "I look forward to working with you."

"'Sir'?" Severus said, raising an eyebrow.

Neville flushed but said nothing. Hermione continued.

"Neville is a Herbology expert. I thought you and he might work well together, creating new strains of plants needed for your potions. Speaking of which..." She turned to face him. "Did you bring the Blood Replenishing potions?"

"I did." Severus extended her the box, and she opened it. She blinked, paused, and looked back at him.

"There are over 700 doses here."

"There are," Severus confirmed.

She pulled one out and examined it in the light, spinning it around.

"This is two shades darker than the standard Blood Replenishing Potion," she commented.

Severus knew a challenge when he heard one. "A side-effect of the scarab eyes."

"Replacing the beetle eyes?" she asked, still examining it. "What did you use to counteract the incendiary factor?"

"Green knoll feathers."

"And the conflict between the knoll feathers and the knotgrass?"

"Stirring with an iron stirring rod, adding a counter-clockwise stir for every five."

Hermione looked at him, evaluating, before giving him a small smile.

"Brilliant," she told him. "I'd have never thought to use knoll feathers. I always used jabberwock feathers, Japanese beetle eyes, and then threw in molten iron. It took an additional half-hour to brew, but it was more effective."

"Molten iron?" Severus said, astonished. "I've never heard of-"

"That's it!" The lead boy snapped his scroll together smartly, cutting Severus off. "If there's nothing else-"

"Oi!" To his dismay, Severus saw James Potter and Sirius Black stumble forward, clutching their scrolls. "We got scrolls too!"

"They say we can appeal the decision," Sirius Black said quickly. "We'd like to appeal."

Harry sighed. "Hermione?"

Severus watched Hermione square her shoulders and stride forward. Harry gave her a sideways look. "You want to deal with this?"

Out of nowhere, Hermione suddenly had two scrolls in her hands.

"James Potter and Sirius Black," she said. "You were denied membership with an option of appeal based on a potential conflict with your answers. You both answered question sixty-one, would you have any problem getting along with other members, 'no'. Our equations calculated that your answer was false, based on the foreknowledge of other members."

"That's ridiculous!" Black said. "We get along with everyone fine!"

"Oh?" Hermione raised an eyebrow. "And will you be able to get along with fellow member Severus Snape?"

There was a pause.

"That's not fair," Black objected. "He can't get along with us, either."

"If you're not members, that's not an issue," Hermione shot back. "We'd rather have him than the both of you."

Potter and Black recoiled, looking struck, and Hermione continued mercilessly.

"Our records indicate no less than forty-seven separate instances of bullying of Severus Snape, all of which were instigated by one of you." She glared at them. "I would have outright denied you membership just based on your appalling lack of moral character. But..."

She sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose.

"You _might_ have skills useful to us," she conceded. "But that depends on you."

"On what?" Potter said, hopefully.

"On if you can get along with Severus," Hermione said. "Can you?"

Potter and Black looked at each other uneasily, before sighing.

"Yes," they said together.

"Really?" Hermione challenged.

"Really," Black said.

"We may never be best mates, but we can get along with him, at the least," Potter explained.

"We swear," Black added.

Hermione sighed and turned.

"Severus," she said, and Severus started, startled. "These two would like membership, despite their continued past abuse of you. Their membership hinges on your decision. Would you like them to become members or not?"

Potter and Black looked gobsmacked, and Severus could scarcely believe it.

"Me? I get to pick...?" His mouth was dry. "I get to decide if they join the club or not?"

Hermione nodded. "You do."

He felt almost dizzy with power. Severus considered for a long moment, dwelling on every mishap and unfortunate event they'd caused him his entire school career. It'd serve them right, not to get to go – they were too immature to come along, and the organization would be better off without them. Unless...

Severus restrained a sigh. If he didn't let them come along, he'd be no better than they were, would he? This could be another test – to see if he was as mature as he'd made himself out to be, to see if he could forgive and forget.

They wouldn't be on his squad, at the least, he told himself.

He turned back to Hermione. "Only if they apologize. For everything."

Hermione turned to Potter and Black. "Well?"

Black looked like he was about to rebel, but Potter quickly said, "We're sorry. For everything."

"We shouldn't have picked on you," Black added, after Potter elbowed him. "We're sorry."

Hermione glanced at Severus, who shrugged and nodded.

"Right," she said, turning back to them. "You two are in. But if you instigate anything with Severus, we will leave you behind wherever or whenever we are. Now, you two are in Zeta squad, with Blaise Zabini."

"Wait wait wait." Ron, the tall redhead, objected. "Hermione, if they join, what about Harry's-"

"Are you an _idiot_, Weasley?" Draco drawled, interrupting. "Do you _really_ think anything about this hasn't been planned out and analyzed to the last detail?"

Ron flushed. "Right."

"Right then," Harry said, looking relieved. "That's all here. Transportation arrangement, then. We've got... how many more to pick up?"

"Just two," Hermione said. "Both on my squad."

"Right. Everyone ready?"

"Come on," Regulus said, tugging Severus by the arm. "Here's how this works: all the squad leaders make a wheel, touching with their right hands, and we grab our squad leader's left hand. Pick a finger."

He grabbed a finger of Hermione's, and Neville grabbed one as well. Feeling petulant, Severus grabbed her thumb, and Hermione glanced back at him, a surprised smile on her face.

"Everyone all set? Here we go-!"

The wind picked up around them, and suddenly, they were moving. Only not, it seemed, Severus realized, as he looked around. The scenery around them blurred, and then stopped.

There was one girl on the lawn this time, clutching a scroll, looking nervous. Harry and Hermione stepped forward.

"Minerva McGonagall?" Harry asked, and the girl nodded.

"_McGonagall?_" Severus hissed to Regulus.

"Apparently," Regulus whispered back. "Don't give an indication you know her from the future, though – that's one of the rules. Anyone you know with the same name is a different person unless you knew them when they were seventeen."

"Welcome to the Young Adventurer's. You're on Omega squad, with Hermione."

Professor McGonagall had blond hair when she was seventeen, Severus noticed. She was still rather plain-looking, but her eyes betrayed her intense excitement.

"Grab one of my fingers," Hermione said, getting back into Transportation formation. "Everyone ready? One last stop."

Harry sighed. "Are we sure about this one?"

"Haven't we argued about this one enough, Potter?" Draco snapped. "Get on with it."

"Right," Harry said, sighing. "Here we go-"

Severus' mind was still boggling over the fact that Draco had called Harry _Potter_. Was Harry a distant cousin of James Potter? Or worse... his son? Grandson?

When they stopped moving this time, there was one boy on the lawn, who seemed entirely unsurprised to see them. There was a hush among many of the members of the club, and Severus blinked and squinted. He didn't recognize the boy.

"Tom Riddle?" Harry said finally.

The boy inclined his head.

"You'll go by Tom Riddle here, and not another name," Harry warned. "You're on Omega squad. Grab Hermione's hand – Hermione, raise your hand – and we'll go."

The boy called Tom edged his way in, giving all the rest of them a charming smile.

"Pleased to meet you," he said, inclining his head. "I'm Tom Riddle."

"Severus Snape," Severus said automatically.

"Regulus Black."

"Minerva McGonagall."

Neville said nothing, and Tom glanced at him, but Neville was looking the other way.

"What's the deal with him?" Tom asked.

"No idea," Regulus said.

"Maybe it's not the deal with him," Severus said. "I mean, he greeted me and Regulus well enough. Maybe it's you."

Tom's eyes gleamed but he remained silent, and Severus couldn't help but wonder if he felt a bit of Legilimency prodding against his Occlumency shields as they transported away.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

This time, they arrived somewhere completely different – a large, empty field in the middle of a forest.

"Okay! Here we're settling down for the night," Harry announced. "We need a big, group fire right in the middle of the clearing. You should have all brought flints – use them, not wands. Each squad leader has a tent – help your squad put up their tent. Dinner is in an hour, if the fire's hot enough. Squad leaders, with me."

Hermione gave them all a smile before going off to join Harry for a meeting, dropping her tent pack on the ground. Severus glanced around his squad.

"Anyone have any experience with tents?" he asked.

Minerva frowned. "I have, but not this kind," she admitted, examining it. "This one looks almost like..."

She unzipped the bindings on one part, and the tent leapt from her hands. Poles clicked into each other, supports straightened out, and the canvas rose, everything assembling itself into a giant tent.

They all stared.

"Did you use magic to do that?" Regulus finally asked.

"Um. No," Minerva admitted. "It just... jumped."

"Leave it to Hermione to get the most advanced, sophisticated tent available," Neville said happily. "Let's go in."

The tent had an undetectable extension charm on it – there were six cots with trunks at their foot inside. Two of the cots were partitioned off behind a curtain.

"Those must be for the girls," Tom said. "I suppose the rest of us should claim a bed?"

Severus was quick to grab the one closest to the door. Tom took the next to him, and Neville was quick to grab the bed farthest from Tom's, so Regulus got the last.

"Do we unload things from our bags into these trunks?" Regulus wondered.

"Better wait," Severus advised. "I'm sure Hermione will tell us what she wants us to do."

"We could go make the fire," Tom suggested. "Everyone else will be busy with their tents."

They all filed out of the tent to see the other squads assembling their own tents. Several others shot them dirty, jealous looks. Severus just smirked.

"We need wood," Minerva said. "Dry wood. Avoid cedars and pines, I think. And kindling."

"I have some dryer lint for kindling," Tom said suddenly. "Hang on."

He dug in his bag, and Regulus exchanged a puzzled look with Neville.

"What's dryer lint?" Regulus asked.

"It's from a Muggle appliance," Severus explained. "It helps clean and dry clothes."

"It lights really well," Tom said, pulling a wad of fuzz from his bag. He handed it to Minerva. "Here. I'll go look for wood."

"I'll help," Regulus piped up.

Neville trailed after them, looking suspicious. Severus exchanged a glance with Minerva, who shrugged.

"Want to help me with the flint?" she asked, and Severus shrugged.

It took a bit to figure out how to get a spark from the flint, but once they did, the dryer lint caught fire very well. They scrambled around to light twigs in a tepee formation, which Severus was vaguely sure was the next step. They had just gotten their little tepee burning steadily when the others came back.

"We got a large assortment of wood," Regulus told them. "We weren't sure how thick it should all be."

"Branches and thinner stuff next, I think," Severus said, grabbing a few sticks. "We have to work up to lighting a big log."

Soon, they had a splendid fire crackling, and they all sat around it, tossing in logs as necessary while the others finished up their tents.

"I never thought I'd be accepted," Regulus said suddenly. "I thought for sure they were angling for people without any blood prejudice, and while I don't, my family history..."

Minerva shrugged. "I think they picked us all on our scholastic achievements, really." She tossed her head. "Or at least, _our_ group. We all seem fairly clever. I won't speak for the others."

She cast a disapproving glance at Potter and Black, who were arguing over which end of the hammer to pound the tent spikes in with.

"That makes sense," Tom said. "Hermione seemed really intent on having the smartest group of everyone, so-"

"When did she tell you that?" Neville cut in.

They all looked up at him, and Tom blinked.

"I don't remember exactly," he said, shrugging. "Does it matter?"

"You were the last one we picked up," Neville said. "When did she tell you that?"

"Before," Tom said, frowning. "One of the times she helped me at the orphanage."

Neville stared.

"You met her before?" he said.

"Yeah, so?" He glanced around. "Didn't the rest of you?"

"No." Regulus shook his head. "The first time I met her was today, when they all came to get everyone they accepted."

"Same for me," Severus said. "Though she did seem to know a lot about me."

Minerva nodded. "Me as well."

Neville didn't answer, instead regarding Tom suspiciously.

"What _is_ it?" Tom said, his tone annoyed. "I don't get your grudge against me. It's completely unfounded. We've only just met."

Neville looked at him for a long moment.

"Haven't you killed people?" he blurted.

Tom was taken aback.

"_Killed_ people?" he said, astonished. "Of course not!"

Neville looked suspicious. "Have you ever cast an Unforgivable?"

"No," Tom said, growing angry. "That was one of the qualifications on the form – not casting an Unforgivable. I wouldn't be here if I had."

Neville looked confused. "But you've killed people indirectly, right? Telling a giant basilisk to eat them?"

"Are you mad?" Tom demanded. "I've never done anything of the sort. I can talk to snakes, I'll grant you – though I'd _love_ to find out how you knew that – but I've never told one to bite or kill anyone!"

Neville stared at him.

"Really?" he said weakly.

"Really," a new voice said, joining the conversation. They all looked up to see Hermione, who put a hand on Tom's shoulder.

"Tom belongs here just as much as anybody," she said. "He's a strong wizard, and he has a lot of potential. He agreed to join the Young Adventurer's Club and filled all the qualifications, as did all of you."

Regulus frowned. "He said he knew you from before."

"He does," Hermione said. "I've kept in touch with Tom since his first year, helping him out. I helped him find and reunite with his father, for instance, and helped tutor him in Astronomy, when he was struggling in third year."

Tom flushed. "I get perfect marks in Astronomy now, Hermione. You don't need to bring that up."

"Nevertheless," Hermione continued, fixing Neville with a look. "Tom is exactly the same as you – a seventeen year-old wizard who's never cast an Unforgivable in his life, has no mental illnesses, and bears no pureblooded prejudices."

"My dad's a Muggle," Tom said, shrugging. "Doesn't make much sense to hate myself, does it?"

Neville stared at Hermione, then at Tom, then at Hermione again.

"Blimey, 'Mione," he said. "Do Harry and Ron know about all that?"

She fixed him with a look.

"Neville, you may be my friend, but please remember, you asked _not_ to be a part of the planning," she said. "You are one of my squad members now, and you _agreed_ to follow direction without having the reasons why explained to you."

"S-Sorry," Neville said quickly, faltering. "I- I didn't mean-"

Hermione sighed. "I know."

She looked at the fire, then turned to Severus thoughtfully.

"You used a tepee burning method," she commented. He nodded and she smiled. "Where'd you learn that?"

"Don't remember," Severus admitted. "Scouting manual I read, maybe?"

She grinned at him, and his heart skipped a beat. "I have that problem a lot."

"All right, everyone, all the tents set?" Harry asked loudly, striding back into the clearing. "Everyone good? All right, let's all sit around the fire in our squads and go over some basic information."

The other squads came over and rejoined them around the fire, everyone glancing around. Severus and Regulus exchanged a glance – they were both eager to find out more about what they'd signed up for.

"Right, then. I'll start by introducing the squad leaders," Harry said. He stood up. "I'm Harry Potter. I'm the leader of Alpha squad."

"Ron Weasley," Ron said, grinning. "Beta squad."

A girl with flaming red hair and freckles to rival Ron's stood up.

"Ginny Weasley," she said, tossing her hair. "Gamma squad."

"Brother and sister, you reckon?" Regulus whispered to him.

"Has to be," Severus whispered back. "Maybe they're twins."

"Draco Malfoy," the blond boy drawled, and Severus felt a flash of triumph. He'd pegged the blond boy as a Malfoy. "Delta squad."

"Luna Lovegood," an airy-looking girl with long blonde hair said, smiling serenely. "Epsilon squad."

"Blaise Zabini," the black boy said, his arms folded. "Zeta squad."

"Hermione Granger. Omega squad."

She sat back down, and all eyes turned back to Harry.

"Right then, those are the squad leaders," Harry said, scratching his head. "If any of you have any problems, talk to your squad leader. If you have any problem you can't talk to your squad leader about, talk to another squad leader, or talk to me. Got it?"

There was a murmur of assent, and Harry relaxed somewhat. "Okay. We have a few rules to go over."

He pulled out a short scroll of parchment.

"Rule number one – wait, this is out of order." He looked around. "Isn't there an introduction scroll first? Wait, nevermind, I have it."

He pulled out a different scroll and began reading aloud.

"Welcome to the Young Adventurer's Club," he said. "We're all glad to have you as part of our team. Before our adventures begin, there is some basic information to go over."

"First and foremost," Harry read, "is the matter of how and when we will be adventuring. Primarily, you should be aware that we are adventuring through _time_, and as such, we must be careful with how we go about it."

"Time travel is a finicky business. Quantum Arithmancy is a difficult and convoluted field, and transportation through time in groups or increments larger than twenty-four hours has only been recently discovered in our own timeline. The squad leaders have all been briefed on the possible effects of screwing up timelines, so as long as you listen to your squad leader, you should be pretty okay.

"The primary rule of time travel is, quite frankly, _don't talk to anyone_. Most of what we will be doing will not involve talking to people. Incapacitating and hexing, yes, but not talking. If we are in a situation where it is okay to talk to people, your squad leader will let you know ahead of time. If we are in an exploration adventure, and you come across someone, do _not _talk to them. If you _must_, give them no information about yourself, and notify your squad leader as soon as possible. Everyone got that? Good."

"Second thing – we will be fighting. A _lot._" Harry fixed them all with a look. "You all indicated some skill with defense on your applications, which is good. A couple of the squads will be more the 'fighter' squads, but you should all be aware that fighting is going to be a large part of the Young Adventurer's Club. Now, we have a way to negate most of the danger from the Killing Curse, but you should be able to throw off the Imperius Curse, should it be used on you, and endure the Cruciatus curse without becoming mentally unhinged for at least five minutes."

"_Negate_ the killing curse?" Tom sounded impressed. "I thought that was impossible."

"It _is_," Regulus said. "It goes through all known shields."

Severus said nothing, but watched Hermione's reaction. Her eyes were sparkling, as if in some quiet triumph, and he wondered if she'd been the one to discover how to defeat the Killing curse.

"Third: should something very bad occur to you, we will make every effort to save you. In order for us to do that..." He sighed. "You will all meet individually with Hermione in the woods over there. Squad leaders first, then Alphabetically by squad. What occurs in your meeting is _private,_ and you must not discuss it with anybody until everyone has had a turn."

"Now, the rules..."

He put the scroll away and picked up the other one from his lap.

"Rule 1: No messing up the timelines.

Rule 2: Do not touch an artifact or book without checking it for traps, hexes, or curses.

Rule 3: No Dark Magic unless specifically instructed to cast so.

Rule 4: No Unforgivables under any circumstances. We can't be having soul-sick people here.

Rule 5: No unprotected sex, drugs, or anything else dodgy that will endanger your well-being and risk the club's success.

Rule 6: No talking to anyone outside of the Young Adventurer's Club about what you did in the Young Adventurer's Club.

Rule 7: No tattoos or piercings that you do not already have.

Rule 8: No taking artifacts or books from a site with you without showing your squad leader first.

Rule 9: No unauthorized time travel.

"And rule number 10," Harry finished up, fixing them all with a look. "_No_ interrogation about other timelines. Do not tell people about what timeline you come from, and do not ask others about the timeline _they_ come from. Got it?"

The crowd murmured its assent, and Harry looked relieved.

"Good, good," he said. "Ginny, if your squad wants to start on dinner? Other squad leaders, one at a time, meet with Hermione. I'll go first."

"Be good, okay?" Hermione said, standing. "If you'd like, you can put your clothes and any school supplies you brought into the trunks with your beds. Anything you want to keep with you while we're adventuring, keep in your packs. I'll be back later."

She smiled at them as she left, and Severus watched her go until she vanished into the trees with Harry before finally turning back to the group.

"So Harry's in charge of the entire operation, right?" Minerva said aloud. "I wonder why everyone has to meet with Hermione, then."

"Maybe it's just delegation of tasks," Regulus said, shrugging. "If Harry's leading everything, he can't be burdened down with saving people. Better give that to someone else."

"Hermione's really smart," Neville offered. "She can probably keep track of everyone and everything she needs from us in case something happens."

"What, like medical information?"

"Sure."

Severus remained silent, thinking of how Harry had read the introduction and rules aloud from pre-written scrolls. He turned to glance at Tom. Tom's eyes were alight, but he said nothing. Conversation turned to their upcoming adventures, something everyone was curious to know more about.

"I hope we get to find lost wizarding gold first," Regulus said, sprawling out in the grass and grinning. "Seems sensible, right? It'd help fund the rest of our adventures."

"They already seem to have gold in hand," Minerva pointed out. "They sent everybody enough to get supplies."

"We won't actually be going on an adventure right off," Neville said, frowning. "I heard the leaders talking about it, once. Everyone's going to do something with blood, first. It'll take a few days."

"Blood?" Tom looked suspicious. "Blood magic is Dark Magic. They don't really seem into that."

Severus kept quiet, not mentioning the Blood Replenishing potions he'd made and delivered, and Neville and Regulus seemed to have forgotten about it. The others continued speculating about what they might be made to do, and Severus half-listened to the conversation as it went on. He found himself watching the forest with more and more of his attention as squad leaders went in and came out from their meetings with Hermione, his mind wondering what exactly was going on.

Each meeting seemed to last exactly five minutes. Harry came out from his meeting with determination, striding right over to Ron and telling him it was his turn. Ron came out of his meeting with a goofy expression on and made Ginny go, but Ginny came out looking confused. Draco came back from his meeting looking shell-shocked, and Luna came back looking as serene as ever. Blaise Zabini came back looking smug. Then it was the new members' turns, and Severus didn't know many of them.

Severus didn't recognize four of the ones in Harry's squad, but Lupin came back with a shy look on his face. The two red-headed twins that Severus were betting were related to Ginny and Ron both came back with identical grins, that they shot at Ron, who glared back at them. Avery came back blushing, and Rabastan came back with a devious glint in his eyes.

Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta... finally, it was Omega's turn. Blaise came over to tell them, eyeing them up.

"Alphabetical by last name," he instructed, as their squad leader was gone. "Black, Longbottom, McGonagall, Riddle, Snape. Be prompt, now."

"Right." Regulus strode off into the forest, and the rest of them watched him go.

"What do you think's going on?" Riddle asked. "Is she asking everyone personal questions? Next of kin and the like?"

"That wouldn't explain all the different reactions everyone has," Severus said. "Everyone seems to come out with a different expression. Whatever's going on, everyone's reacting to it differently."

Regulus came out with a grin on his face. As Longbottom strode off for his turn, Severus and Tom turned to him, but he only held up his hands and smirked.

"No talking about it until everyone's gone, remember?" he told them. "It'll mess everything up if you know beforehand."

Tom and Severus huffed at him and ignored him, but Regulus seemed perfectly content to grin at the fire by himself.

Neville came back looking embarrassed, and Minerva went after him. Regulus kept shooting Neville grins and elbowing him, but Neville only huddled up on himself tighter and tighter, hugging his knees. Minerva came back looking disturbed, and then it was Tom's turn, who eagerly strode off. He came back with his eyes glinting, as if he'd discovered some new challenge, and then it was Severus' turn, and, anxious, he walked into the forest alone.

He found the clearing with Hermione easily enough. She was sitting on a stone bench alone, wearing a loose set of blue robes. The sun had long since set. The moonlight in the clearing illuminated her hair and face, and Severus was struck with how very beautiful she was.

She turned to look at him and smiled. "Severus? Come over."

She patted the space next to her on the bench and he sat.

"I need you to trust me and close your eyes," she told him, taking his hands in hers. "No, not yet – face me. You might need to straddle the bench a bit – there. Now, close your eyes."

Severus closed his eyes, shivering.

"Now, no matter what you may hear, do _not_ open your eyes, Severus. Do you understand?"

"Yes," Severus said. "But what are you going to do? What's so important that I can't-"

"This."

Her lips sealed over his own, and it was as if time stopped.

Sensation rushed through him, and he found himself reacting, kissing her back deeply, though he'd never been kissed before. Her touch was like fire, setting him alight, little spirals of flame dancing through his veins, and then he was pulling her closer, cupping her face as he kissed her even deeper still, unable to stop himself.

Then Hermione moaned against him, pulling him closer still, and Severus couldn't stop himself.

Part of him, in the back of his mind, knew that if everyone was going through the same thing, Hermione had kissed everyone tonight, and that was almost a little gross, to be kissing her lips after forty other people. But the majority of him was preoccupied with kissing Hermione, with tangling his tongue with hers and pulling her chest flush against his own, unable to hear anything that might be going on with the rush of blood pounding in his head.

There was a small beeping sound. Severus ignored it at first, but then Hermione sighed a lovely small sigh and pulled back, and Severus blinked, looking around.

It was still night out and the moon was still shining. The clearing was still empty (or if it had been full, it was empty again now), and Hermione was sitting in front of him, a blush blossoming across her face as she turned off the timer on her watch.

"What..." Severus' mouth was too dry, and he tried again. "What was that?"

Hermione gave him an embarrassed, amused look. "That was a kiss, Severus," she told him, her tone teasing. "Surely you're familiar with the concept?"

"_Yes_, but..." He trailed off. "Why...?"

She tilted her head. "What went through your head, the moment my lips touched yours?"

He paused. "Absolutely nothing," he admitted. "I just..."

"That's what I needed," she said, and Severus was relieved that she'd cut him off. "I needed a moment with everyone where they weren't thinking _anything_ – just reacting with raw emotion – surprise, shock, confusion, whatever."

"To help save our lives?" Severus asked, and Hermione gave him a look, a look that read _I'm not discussing this with you, so you'd better not ask, _and Severus waved it off. "I know you can't talk about it, but... surely you didn't expect everyone's mind to remain blank for the entirety of the five minutes?"

To his surprise, Hermione flushed a brilliant vermillion.

"Most people didn't kiss me for the full five minutes," she said dryly, though her face flamed. "With everyone else, it was a relatively short kiss, and then just a matter of getting them to keep their eyes shut and ignore anything else they heard."

Severus felt a smug smirk start to spread across his face. "So I was the best?"

"I didn't say that," Hermione said hotly, tossing her hair. "It just... lasted the longest."

"But you kept kissing me, and no one else," he said, grinning. "Did you like kissing me, Hermione?"

"I didn't say you were the _only_ one to kiss me for the full five minutes," Hermione said, utterly ignoring his question. "Just that most didn't."

Severus frowned. "Who else kissed you longer?"

Hermione gave him a sideways look. "Jealous?"

Severus snorted, and Hermione laughed and stood.

"Come on," she said, offering him a hand. "You were the last one. We can all go to bed, now."

Severus took her hand and stood. He was very close to Hermione, and she was smiling up at him in the moonlight, and he was struck with the urge to kiss her again.

"Come on," Hermione said, taking a step away from him. "Let's go."

She let go of his hand, and Severus was struck to find that he wished he'd held on.

When they arrived back at the campsite, Regulus and Tom were smirking at him, and Severus wondered what kind of expression his own face held.

"Time for bed, now," she said. "We have a long day tomorrow, and all the other squads have already turned in. You can use magic inside of the tent – just not outside."

She wished them all a good-night, and then vanished into the girl's portion of the tent along with Minerva. Severus and the rest of them went into their own area and set about undressing. Shirtless, Tom cast a couple warding spells at the flap dividing their part of the tent from the shared area and the girls' area, as well as a muting spell, before turning to them.

"So," he said, smirking. "Who has a story to tell?"

"She _kissed_ me," Regulus said, laughing. "I couldn't believe it. After she did, I made a quip about knowing I was irresistible, and she laughed. I tried to kiss her again, but she wouldn't go for it, saying I had to focus on keeping my eyes closed."

"She kissed me too," Neville said, his eyes full of some wordless wonder.

"She kissed us all, Neville," Severus said dryly. "I think we've all surmised that by now."

"I know, but still..." Neville trailed off, then, more quietly, "I've wanted to kiss Hermione since forever."

"She wouldn't tell me why she needed to kiss me," Tom said. "Only that she needed an isolated moment she could refind where I wasn't thinking about anything." He grinned. "I asked her what would happen if we kissed again in the future, and she laughed at me, telling me that I'd already given her the moment she needed and that it was too late to mess it up."

"Still, I can't believe she kissed _everyone_," Regulus said, lying back and folding his arms under his head. "She doesn't seem the type to do that, y'know?"

"She's not," Neville said defensively. "It was for the Time Magic."

"Still," Regulus said. "Certainly explains Minerva's reaction."

They all laughed, remembering her expression.

"She looked so disturbed!" Tom said, laughing. "I couldn't imagine what would have caused her to look like that! I guess another girl kissing her was enough."

Regulus couldn't stop laughing. "Maybe she _liked_ it, and that's why she was so disturbed-!"

That sent them all into another fit of laughter, before they all settled down to go to sleep. Severus saw Neville drift off, and Regulus' infamous snoring soon picked up shortly thereafter.

"Severus?"

Severus turned at the whisper to see Tom looking at him, his eyes oddly bright in the darkness.

"You were gone a long time," he told him. "Longer than the five minutes the rest of us had, for sure."

"So?"

"So, there must have been a reason for it," Tom said quietly. "Come on, spill. How many of you did you hear?"

Severus blinked. "What?"

"Surely you must have figured it out by now," Tom said. "How many others of you did you hear appearing and disappearing from the clearing?"

Severus suddenly felt wide awake.

"I don't know," he said. "She made sure I couldn't hear anything going on."

"A lot, then," Tom said. He hesitated. "It was the same with me."

"Really?" Severus asked, surprised.

"Yeah. I mean, it sounded like she just kissed the others, but y'know, with me, it went on a bit." He grinned at him, and Severus felt an inexplicable surge of jealousy for the other boy. "But still, after that, I was sitting there for another three minutes, her urging me to keep my eyes closed, that it'd be over soon, and I just kept hearing all these _pop_s. I kept talking to her, teasing her about kissing her again in the future, but I could tell from her voice that she was worried about how many incarnations of me were popping up. It took almost the full five minutes to stop."

There was a silence.

"And you took _more_ than five minutes," he said. "That's a bit of a comfort, really – to know someone else is going to get hurt as often as I will."

Severus could only nod in the dark, and Tom nodded and rolled over to fall asleep.

There had been different incarnations of himself appearing while he'd kissed Hermione?

Severus fell asleep wondering just what kind of magic Hermione could work in her kiss.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

The next morning, Severus was awoken by a loud trumpeting. There was a lot of yelling following the trumpeting, followed by Harry's loud voice proclaiming, "I know everyone's awake from that. We might as well get up. Muggle clothes today, everyone. Breakfast in half an hour."

When Severus made it out of the tent, clad in a jumper and set of black jeans Regulus had gotten for him, most everyone was already eating eggs and bacon they'd prepared over the renewed fire somehow.

Suppressing a yawn, he made his way over to his squad.

"Severus! You made it." Regulus grinned at him, and Severus rolled his eyes.

"Shove off, Black. If you could sleep without snoring, I wouldn't be so tired now."

Regulus grinned, unapologetic.

"Here."

Severus looked down at Hermione, who was offering him a plate of eggs and bacon.

"I saved you some breakfast," she said. "You'll need your strength today."

Severus raised an eyebrow as he took the plate from her. "I will?"

She grinned at him suddenly – a wicked, devious grin. "You'll need the iron, at any rate."

Severus suddenly wasn't looking forward to the rest of the day quite as much.

After breakfast, they'd packed up their tents and gotten into transportation formation.

"Before we go," Harry said, projecting his voice over the group, "realize that we're going to be among Muggles today. Feel free to talk to people, but no talking about magic or anything of the like, okay? And no being pansies about the needles."

They were abruptly whisked away by the same odd sense of teleporting as before. The wind was more extreme this time, and Severus wondered how they were moving through space as well as time simultaneously. When they arrived, Severus looked around.

"A parking lot?" Tom wondered aloud.

Regulus shot him a worried look. "What's a parking lot?"

"Get into a line," Harry said. "Answer questions only when asked directly by the nurses. And otherwise, lie low."

They filed into a large building, down a hall, and through a large set of doors.

"Oh!"

A woman hurried over to them holding a clipboard. "You're the Young Adventurer's Club?" she asked with an American accent. Severus and Tom exchanged a look.

"We are," Harry confirmed, and the woman relaxed.

"I'm so glad. It really is wonderful of you all to volunteer, especially right after the disaster," she said. "Right this way."

An army of nurses set about calling out names and taking people back, and Severus relaxed.

"What's going on?" Regulus demanded, seeing him relax. "Who are these people?"

"We'll be fine. We're donating blood," Severus explained. "That's all."

Regulus looked suspicious. "For what...?"

Tom and Severus took turns explaining Muggle medicine and how donating blood worked. Regulus looked relieved afterward.

"Oh, is that all?" he said, sighing. "I can handle that."

"If this is what they were talking about before," Neville said, frowning, "I don't see how they plan on having us donate multiple times over the next couple days. It takes a month to be allowed to do this again, you say?"

"I think I know the answer to that." Severus explained about the Blood-Replenishing potions he'd been asked to make and bring, and Tom and Neville were looking at him with respect by the time he finished.

"You made all those in a week?" Neville said. "That's – that's-"

"It wasn't that hard," Severus said, shrugging. "Even without the modifications, each batch would only take three hours. Even managing only five cauldrons at a time, it'd only take six brewing sessions, really."

Neville's eyes bulged. "_Five cauldrons at a time?_"

Severus frowned. "That's not that hard. I managed ten."

Neville's laugh was almost panicked. "I don't think I've ever brewed _one_ correctly,"

"Not _one?_" Severus couldn't believe it. "It's a third year potion!"

"I had some conflicts with my Potions professor," Neville said, eyes wide. "I didn't do well in that class at all."

"Even with your talent in Herbology?" Severus asked, astonished.

"Even then."

"Your potions teacher must have been incompetent, then," Severus said decisively. "A blind mule could learn to brew third year Potions effectively with a good teacher."

Neville gave another panicked giggle, before settling down a bit.

"How'd you know I was good at Herbology?" he asked.

Severus explained how Hermione had told him upon his introductions, and then they were off in a deep conversation about how Herbology crossed over with Potions, and how various ingredients might be improved with different horticulture techniques. Severus ignored Tom and Regulus, who rolled their eyes and entertained themselves with magazines, and focused on interrogating Neville about the possibility of breeding albino mandrakes.

A bit later, the Omega squad was called back all at once, and Hermione joined them there.

"Anyone afraid of needles?" she asked.

Regulus looked confused. "Why would we be?"

Hermione shrugged, smiling. "Some people have fears of needles. I suspect it's an exclusively Muggle fear, though."

The nurses arrived, asked them all several questions, pricked their fingers, and the next thing Severus knew, there was a bag hanging underneath of his bed, filling up with his blood.

"That is _sick_," Regulus said, watching his own bag fill up with fascination. "How much fits in there?"

"A pint," Hermione told him, amused. "They're getting a pint from each of us."

"From all... forty-two of us?" Severus asked, doing the math. "That's a lot of blood. What do they need it for?"

"There's always a need for blood," Hermione said. "It's good to help people."

They fell silent as the bags filled up. Hermione pulled out a small novel to read with one hand, and Severus envied her foresight. Severus occupied himself by examining the room, seeing how many Muggle medical instruments he could recognize.

When they finally finished, they went through to a room that had juice and snacks, where they were told to relax and eat a few snacks for ten minutes. Hermione thanked the nurse, who thanked her again in turn, and went back to get another group. As soon as the door closed, Hermione ignored the nurse's advice and went across the room to talk to Harry quietly. Ron and Ginny were there too – it seemed that about half the groups were through.

"Hey, Severus."

Severus tore his eyes from Hermione to look at Tom.

"Remember the disaster the woman who greeted us mentioned?" he said quietly. Severus nodded, and Tom gestured at the TV. "Think that qualifies?"

Severus watched the TV, stunned, as an American reporter discussed the damage caused by a huge earthquake in Los Angeles. The camera cut to show the wreckage, with whole roadways collapsed and giant buildings fallen over.

"There hasn't been an earthquake in California in years," Severus hissed to Tom. "How far back did we go?"

"Not back," Tom said, flipping up a local paper so Severus could see the masthead. "Forward."

The date read January 18th, 1994. Severus' eyes met Tom's, and he swallowed hard.

"I didn't know it was possible to go forward in time," he said.

"It's not," Tom said. "I know enough about Quantum Arithmancy to know that future timelines aren't written. That means this is still someone's past." He paused. "What year are you from?"

"1977," Severus told him, though he suspected he wasn't supposed to share the information. "What about you?"

Tom sucked in his breath sharply. "1944."

"So they can travel within a 50 year span, at the least," Severus said, astonished. "I've never heard of such a thing. They must have some real power on their side."

Tom nodded grimly. "To get that kind of power... I wonder what's motivating them?"

Severus lapsed into silence, watching Hermione, whose face was worried as she talked with Harry and Ron.

Whatever the cause, it had to be a worthy one, for them to assemble a force this big to combat it. Severus could only guess at what that might be.

After everyone had given blood, they were all herded back out to the parking lot they'd arrived on. Ginny briskly passed out Blood Replenishing potions and instructed them to drink up. When they had all done so, they transported again, landing in a different parking lot, and they were again herded in to donate blood. And so it went for the next three days.

Though Severus understood that the Young Adventurer's Club was generally a good group, his mind boggled at why they needed to donate all this blood. Surely, there wasn't that big of a blood shortage after disasters? There had to be another reason for all the blood donating, but Severus hadn't the slightest idea what it was.

The long days allowed for one good thing, though – learning more about his teammates. Tom was as smart as he'd seemed, and the two of them hit it off well, discussing intricate magical theories and various ideas of the Young Adventurer's Club's purpose. In the year since Severus had known him, Regulus had become more outgoing and confident in himself – a result, Severus was sure, from his brother being gone. Minerva tended to keep to herself, but Severus caught her deep in conversation with Neville and Regulus frequently.

Neville was the oddest of the bunch, it seemed. Despite the confrontation around the fire, Neville seemed highly uneasy around Tom still. Tom handled this by ignoring Neville completely, as if he couldn't care, but Severus and Tom had discussed the issue quietly, wondering what had caused it. This resulted in the surprised realization that they'd _both_ tried Legilimency on him to find out why, only to be met with solid Occlumency doors shuttering his mind.

Severus had been surprised and excited to learn someone else in the group was a Legilimens, and Tom seemed ecstatic to have someone he could practice with. The following conversation was a long, engaging one that led to them agreeing to try to read the minds of everyone from Harry's timeline to discover what their true mission was.

Rather uneasily, they'd discovered that everyone from that timeline, even Neville, had Occlumency shields, and neither of them could read any of their minds.

Severus had noticed Hermione glancing over at them once as he and Tom had a panicked, hushed conversation about their discovery, and she had raised her eyebrow once, almost challengingly. Severus was dumbfounded as he realized that somehow, she had _known _they would attempt Legilimency on the others. The fact that the Young Adventurer's Club had taken such painstaking precautions to make sure their true purpose could not be easily discovered was incredible to Severus, and the entire organization rose several points in Severus' esteem.

On the last day, after they finished donating blood in Hawaii for those injured in the Pearl Harbor attacks, they were given their customary blood replenishing potion and resumed their transportation formation. As they got ready to go, though, Severus could detect some excitement among the squad leaders, who kept glancing around at each other. When Harry asked, "Ready?" Severus felt anxious and excited as well, though he didn't know why.

The Transportation was different than any other he'd experienced. Sharp winds howled around them as they transported, multicolored fogs blowing up around them as they transported. Severus hung on to Hermione's thumb, fearing what might happen if he let go, and when they landed, he nearly collapsed.

Several of the other members did, in fact. Severus was glad he'd managed to stay on his feet – he could see from his position that both James Potter and Sirius Black had fallen upon arrival.

"Blimey," Ron said, gasping for air. "That was miserable."

"Yes, but it worked, Weasley," Draco said, but his tone wasn't its customary dry sarcasm. Instead, he sounded almost reverent. "Look."

Severus turned.

They were on top of a flat-topped mountain. The sky around them seemed to stretch on forever, full of dark clouds, interrupted here and there by giant green mountains. Below, a stone city made out of shining white rock stretched below them. Next to him, Minerva gasped.

"That's Machu Picchu," Tom said, his tone reverent. "Lost city of the Incas."

"If I can have your attention," Harry called out over them. "Come on over here and sit down. There are a couple things we need to go over before we explore."


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

"I still don't see why we have to go through the bloody temple," Rabastan groused. "I want to check out the city."

"You're a moron, then," Severus told him. "All the valuable information will be where the temple priests were."

"But all the treasure will be in the rest of the city-"

"Who cares about the treasure?" Tom said, cutting in. "This is where the Incas _sacrificed humans_. There's _got_ to be some impressive magic about."

Severus looked at Tom sideways, but he only grinned at him. Severus turned back to the task at hand – carefully examining every rune and book they came across without touching, in the hopes some of it would be valuable or important. It was surreal, just _being_ there. The Incans had abandoned the city shortly before the Spanish had conquered it, and it'd been left alone for hundreds of years afterward. For them to be in Machu Picchu before it turned to ruins, they had to be in the fifteenth or sixteenth centuries.

That degree of time-travel magic was _insane_. Severus wondered just how the group leaders were pulling it off.

"Don't get why _they_ had to come with us," Regulus groused quietly from next to Severus, nodding his head toward Sirius Black and James Potter. Severus bit back a sneer.

"Omega and Zeta squads have joined together for this part of the mission," Tom reminded Regulus. "They come with the rest of Zeta. We'll just have to deal with the nuisance."

"Neville seems to be dealing with it the worst," Minerva said quietly, sidling up next to them, her wand out. "Just look at him."

They all turned to glance at Neville. He was walking around with the rest of them, but he was shaking slightly, and he kept deliberately putting himself as far as he could from Rabastan, instead going around with a couple boys from the Zeta squad that he seemed to know.

"What's all that about?" Regulus said. "He's being more weird about Rabastan than he ever was about Tom."

"No idea," Severus said. "Maybe he knows Rabastan from the future, too."

"Hey! Come look at this!"

Severus jerked violently at the sound of Sirius Black's voice. Steadying himself, he went over with the rest of the group to see what he had found.

"What is it, Sirius?" Hermione asked, stepping forward.

Sirius gestured to a large inscription behind him, grinning. "Take a look."

There was a giant wheel on the wall, with circles and holes and different colored jewels in the stones. There was an inscription above the wall in unrecognizable script, and Hermione nodded.

"Good eye, Sirius..." she said.

"Like we wouldn't have seen it the second we turned the corner," Regulus hissed, and Severus smirked.

"...but really, you shouldn't have touched anything," she said, frowning. "Which hole did you touch?"

Sirius turned red. "I- ah – I didn't _mean_ to. I just slipped, is all, and-"

Hermione sighed. "Which jewel fell out?"

Sirius held up a large ruby the size of a tennis ball. "Here."

Hermione stepped forward and took the gem, examining it carefully. She looked up at the puzzle.

"It seems that-"

"Hermione!"

Harry appeared next to her suddenly, his eyes frenzied.

"Hermione, it's Tonks!" he said, frantic. "Come on-!"

Eyes wide, Hermione dropped the ruby and Disapparated with him without another word. The rest of them all stood there for a long moment, staring at each other in silence.

"How come she gave the ruby to you?" Rabastan complained.

Severus looked down at his hands, where Hermione had dropped the ruby, and smiled a small, private smile. "Because she thinks I'll be able to solve the puzzle," he said.

"Go right ahead, then," Sirius said, sitting back in disgust.

Severus ignored him, stepping forward. He examined the wall.

"How many gems are there?" he wondered, and Tom stepped forward.

"Twelve," he said. "Counting the ruby."

Severus considered, before reaching out and carefully tipping the stones out, putting each one into the bowl standing atop a nearby pillar.

"Are you sure that's wise?" Blaise said, raising an eyebrow. "You might trigger a trap."

"Removing the keys won't do anything but further lock the door," Severus said firmly. "If we put them back incorrectly, then we might hit a trap."

Once all the stones were out, Regulus joined him and Tom in examining the circles.

"The answer's probably found in Incan mythology," Regulus said. "Anyone know any of that?"

"I know they were polytheists," Tom said, frowning. "I know they practiced human sacrifice, Inti was the sun god, they had twelve months-"

"What form did Inti take?" Severus said, distracted.

"As far as I know, just that of the sun. Why does-"

"Look here," Severus said, pointing at the bottom. "See how this picture here shows that stone out front with the longest shadow? And here, across the circle, it's the same stone with no shadow."

"The Intihuatana Stone," Blaise told them, folding his arms. "What of it?"

"Based on where we are geographically, it would have no shadow during the winter solstice," Severus said, picking up the large diamond. "If the ruby were to represent the sun, this would mean the moon, right?"

He put the diamond into the compartment at the bottom of the circle, and suddenly, the rock began to move.

"Now you've done it!" Potter said loudly. "You'll kill us all!"

"Oh, shut up," Regulus snapped. "Look!"

The runes and puzzle twisted, before stopping, leaving a new empty hole before him.

"What one now?" Sirius sneered. "There's no drawing this time."

Severus ignored him, fitting the sapphire into the hole without hesitation, and once again, the stones began to rotate.

"How did you-?" Sirius spluttered.

Severus didn't answer. The truth was he'd remembered where it had been when he'd taken it out.

The stones stopped again, and Severus fit in the emerald, followed by the bloodstone, amethyst, sapphire, and turquoise. When the stone stopped turning again, Severus paused.

"It's back where it started," Regulus observed. "There are still five missing. How are you supposed to know which one to put in now?"

"That's easy," Severus said, stepping forward with the ruby. "It's the one that looks like the sun."

Stretching, he just managed to reach up far enough to fit the stone into its spot, and the wall shuddered, giving a great groan, before the jewels all started to glow.

"Shit!" Rabastan said, ducking. "I don't want to be cursed!"

Severus watched in awe as the other four stones floated up and fit themselves into place. The circle of stones started to spin inside the rock, and there was a flash of light and a loud _click_.

"Well, would you look at that," Blaise said, sounding impressed. "A door handle."

A stone door handle had appeared. Severus glanced up at Blaise, who shrugged and gestured.

"Go ahead," he said. "You're the one that solved it."

Carefully, Severus eased open the door, and everyone gasped.

Inside were piles and piles of gold and jewels stacked nearly to the ceiling. A heap of weapons and rings embedded with runes sat in a corner, and the far wall was covered with bookshelves, filled with books. Ceremonial bowls with runes etched into them were scattered on an old-looking set of shelves, and in the middle of the floor, another giant runic circle was inscribed, with large cut outs to hold some ritual object.

"Nicely done, Severus," Blaise said, grinning and clapping him on the back. "Knew you had it in you. Now, let's take our time exploring this room, shall we?"

Severus was fascinated by all the books he found. Most of them seemed to be tax records, from all the numbers recorded within, but some of them seemed to be magic books, judging from the pictures and diagrams inside. He found some books about the sun and planets too, and he was just starting to page through a book on what seemed to be potions when Hermione arrived.

Her hair was frizzed out beyond all belief, and she had dark circles of exhaustion under her eyes. Severus got up without thinking to go to her, but Blaise beat him there.

"All right there, Granger?" he said, taking her arm to steady her.

"I'm fine," Hermione insisted, tugging her arm away. "Everything went according to plan."

Blaise raised an eyebrow. "Then why are you-"

"So tired?" Hermione finished for him. She sighed. "That would be from the genius of the Weasley twins, I'll have you know."

Blaise and several others of their little group groaned. Severus glanced at Neville and his couple of friends, all of whom had rolled their eyes at Hermione's pronouncement.

"What did they do?" Blaise demanded.

"Well, Tonks tripped, and that was what triggered a blow-dart trap," Hermione said. "While I was busy saving Tonks, Kingsley set about collecting the darts to examine the venom in them later. The Weasleys, for reasons known only to them, saw the box of odd-shaped things and put some of their fireworks in the box as well. When the next trap went off, a fire spurt, their fireworks went off as well, sending poisoned blow darts every which way. I ended up having to save nearly _everyone_ in Alpha, Beta, and Gamma squads," she said disgustedly, "and Tonks twice more."

"Good god, woman," Blaise said, aghast. "Are they being punished?"

Hermione shrugged and sighed. "I'm sure Harry's handling that."

Blaise gave her a look that said he didn't think the Weasley twins would be punished harshly enough, but Hermione was looking around the room.

"So you solved the puzzle?" she asked aloud. "Which one of you knew how to read Incan runes?"

Blaise smirked. "None of us. But Severus managed it anyway."

Hermione turned to look at Severus. "You did?"

Severus nodded, and a wide smile spread across her face.

"Brilliant," she told him, coming over to beam at him. "Just brilliant. I wasn't looking forward to translating with this headache I've got now. And- look! You found the tomes!"

Excitedly, she dropped to her knees, scanning several of the nastier-looking books. Blaise glanced at Severus and rolled his eyes but smiled, and Severus got the impression that stopping everything to look at books was a usual indulgence with Hermione.

Omega and Zeta squads spent several more hours cataloging everything found in the temple and packing it up to safely transport, while Hermione lingered, reading the Incan tomes. Severus managed to dilly-dally by her for a stretch of minutes to make sure she hadn't fallen asleep, but she was reading the entire time.

By the time everything was packed up and they made their way back to the top of the mountain to camp, Hermione was half asleep, and Blaise had resorted to half-carrying, half-dragging her along, Hermione's sleepy protests amusing both squads.

She was fast asleep by dinner, a book still clutched in her hand. Omega squad talked quietly about what all they'd found during dinner, not wanting to wake their leader.

"I haven't the slightest idea what all those books or ritual tools were about," Tom told Severus. "But some of the _rings_, Severus. You should see the spells on them."

"See the spells?" Severus questioned, and Tom nodded.

"I used an Arithmatic separator spell, to see the different layers of casting. I couldn't recognize most of them, of course, but some of them are _mad_."

"Like what?" Regulus asked, joining the conversation.

"Like one that layered dark energy capturing spells with fertility and gestation runes," Tom told him. Regulus looked puzzled, but Severus' eyes bulged.

"To – what, allow them to give birth to a dark avatar?" Severus demanded.

Tom shrugged. "Seems like it. Maybe it was for ritual sacrifice? Why else would it be kept in a temple?"

"They raised children just to kill them?" Regulus looked ill.

"Maybe not," Severus said. "Depending on the intent of the spells, it could have been to make the wearer more in-touch with dark energies and become an avatar themselves. There's no way we can know, though, without a thorough grounding in Incan spells."

"We're lucky we managed to figure anything out," Tom agreed. "I've no idea how Hermione can just sit down and read spell books that have a non-Latinate base..."

Conversation turned to all the uncursed treasure they had found, including a pair of long, bronze swords embedded with sapphires, but Severus' mind lingered on what Tom had said about Hermione.

Ancient Incan magic was a far cry from the magic of Hogwarts. Just how did she know how to read ancient Incan, anyway? What exactly were they searching for?


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

The next several days were spent carefully excavating Machu Picchu. They sprung several more traps as they did so, but there were no more almost-casualties, leaving Hermione free to run from site to site to inspect new ruins as they were uncovered.

It was exciting stuff, and Severus found himself reveling in it. Though there wasn't another puzzle the size of the hidden temple door, there were traps and little riddles throughout the city, and each time a squad found one, the Omega squad was summoned to help.

After the second day, Severus believed Tom was right – the Omega squad _was_ the smart squad. Tom and he solved most of the puzzles as they were found, though Minerva solved a fair few as well. Regulus and Neville took up the logistics mantle, designating the best way to sort and catalog everything, as well as how best to pack it for transport. Soon, they were directing the other squads in what to do, with even the other squad leaders listening and obeying them.

By the time the city was emptied entirely, everyone had exciting stories to share around the campfire at night.

"So there I was, standing on top of a ramp!" Ron Weasley leapt on top of a log to demonstrate. "And then, as soon as I stepped forward, I heard this awful rumble, and this giant boulder was coming down after me!"

Half the camp gasped, listening avidly. The other half exchanged superior glances, indicating that they would never have gotten caught in such an obvious trap in the first place.

"It was all I could do to sprint down the ramp and hurl myself sideways, just out of the way!" Ron said, hurling himself to the side to demonstrate, tucking and rolling onto the grass. "I barely made it, as it was! I lost a shoe! But by throwing myself sideways, I ended up right inside the prince's treasure room!" He grinned at them. "That's worth a shoe any day, isn't it?"

"That's nothing!" a boy called Cormac McLaggen challenged. "Earlier today, I accidentally opened a door that had a giant wasp's nest on top of it, and all of the sudden, these magically-enlarged demon insects were coming after my head!"

Severus turned to glance at Hermione as Cormac continued with his story. Her lips were twitching upward, but not in the reverent awe that most everyone else had. Carefully edging backwards, so Tom didn't catch him sneaking off, Severus went to sit next to Hermione.

"You should hear my story," he said quietly. "I opened this giant door that said, "Do Not Open", and then Death himself came barreling out..."

Hermione burst into snickers and quickly tried to stifle her laughs.

"I only escaped by shoving my wand up my arse and casting the suicide spell," Severus continued. "Death couldn't kill me, because I'd already killed myself. By the time he figured out that he could claim me because I was already dead, I'd found the antidote hiding in a rock and resurrected myself, completely free of brain-damage and any lasting harm."

By the time Hermione could stop her giggling, her eyes were shining with mirth.

"Low opinions of your co-adventurers?" she asked, giggling, and Severus smiled at her.

"Not really," he said. "Just – well, some of them certainly aren't the shiniest sickles in the vault, are they?"

Hermione laughed. "No. I suppose not."

"Not everyone can be clever, though," Severus said. "We _need_ dumb morons like Cormac to go barreling into traps we don't know how to diffuse. Otherwise, we'd end up staring at a bunch of heavily-warded doors, growing old as we try to break the long-lost spells."

"Well said," Hermione said, smiling. "You'll notice there are none of those on _my_ squad, though."

"Was that a compliment?" Severus teased, and Hermione laughed.

"Severus, you have to know I think you're brilliant," she told him. "That's why I fought for you to be on my squad so hard."

Severus' grin faded.

"How'd you know I was so brilliant, though?" he asked her.

"Oh, it was all on your application," she told him, waving him off. "I thought-"

"Don't give me that," Severus said. "Hermione, when I look at you, I just get this _feeling_ – of fate or _something_. Tell me, Hermione – did I know you, in the future?"

Hermione gave him a closed look.

"Rule number ten," she said quietly. "No interrogations about other timelines."

"I'm not _interrogating_," he argued. "I'm just _asking_."

Hermione's eyes were veiled, and Severus continued on, frustrated.

"I mean, it's _obvious_, Hermione. Minerva was my teacher in school, so you obviously selected her based on her future abilities with Transfiguration, which helped you know she'd be clever at seventeen, too," Severus argued. "For the rest of us, the ones you got from all over time, you must know of us somehow in the future too, right?"

Hermione bit her lip, and Severus pressed on.

"I mean, it doesn't matter anymore now, does it?" he urged. "We're not in your timeline anymore, Hermione, so it doesn't matter. Just tell me – were we friends?"

It happened in a second. Hermione's eyes closed over, as if sealed with ice, and when she laughed shortly, and it was cold.

"Friends?" she said. "_Hardly_. Now, if you'll excuse me, Severus, I need to get some reading done."

She strode off into the tent, not looking back, and Severus watched her go, frustrated.

"What'd you ask her?"

Severus looked up to see Tom and Neville looking at him curiously, and he felt the urge to punch them both.

"I asked her if she knew me from the future," he admitted.

Neville's eyes grew comically wide. "R-Rule ten states that-"

"I know what the rules are," Severus snapped. "I asked her anyway."

"What did she say?" Tom asked quietly.

Severus glanced up, but Tom didn't appear to be teasing him – on the contrary, he seemed deathly serious.

"She just said that we weren't friends," he said. "That's all she said."

Neville looked relieved, and Severus got a sneaking suspicion that maybe he should try and crack open Neville before having another go at Hermione.

Later that night, just as he was dozing off, Severus was jolted awake with a whisper.

"She wouldn't tell me either, you know," Tom said quietly.

"You asked her too?" Severus said. He sat up, quietly casting a _Muffilato_ around them. "When?"

"You forget – she came to see me repeatedly," Tom said quietly. "All throughout my school years. She was always nineteen – I have no idea how she never aged. But one day, when I was sixteen, I asked her."

Severus couldn't have stopped himself from listening if he'd tried.

"I love her. I've always bloody loved her since I was seven, and she came to find me in that bloody orphanage," Tom said disgustedly, running a hand through his hair. "And when I was 16 – well, the age difference wasn't exactly a deal-breaker anymore. So I asked her."

"I asked her why she came back in time to help me," Tom said, his eyes dark. "I asked her why she saved me. If I meant something to her in the future, and she'd promised the future me to help ease my past. If we were friends, or lovers, or something more."

Severus held his breath.

"And she just _looked_ at me," Tom said, his tone angry. "She just gave me this _look_, and I felt horrible. I knew I'd horribly disappointed her in that moment, just by asking, but I haven't the slightest idea as to _why_."

"She did the same to me," Severus murmured. "She just gave me this look – it was so cold, so heartless..."

They sat there in the dark.

"Maybe she doesn't want to think about the us she knew in the future anymore," Severus suggested. "Maybe she just wants to focus on us, the people she knows now."

"Yeah, but she picked us for what we'll do in the _future_, didn't she?" Tom argued, frustrated. "If I'm so great as to catch her notice in the future, why can't she tell me so I can become that person to catch her eye _now?_"

"Maybe she's seeing someone," Severus said quietly, though his guts clenched at the thought. Maybe she's seeing someone in her present, some boy she's going back to-"

"Please," Tom scoffed. "Have you seen the way the others from her timeline flirt with her? There's no way they'd do that if she weren't single. But if she _is_ single, why won't she give us the time of day?"

"She gave you way more than the time of day," Severus said sharply, unable to stop himself. "She met with you _repeatedly_ over a period of _years_. I've only known her for a fortnight, and I'm still trying to get to know her."

"She's just _busy _right now," Severus continued. "I get the feeling that for all Harry's the obvious leader of this whole thing, Hermione's the one who came up with it and planned the whole expedition. This is the trip of her life, the journey of a lifetime, for her, the culmination of all her work and planning. She's focused on _that_, Tom, not on us and our stupid little crushes. Only when her work is done will she be able to look up and find that she had us great guys helping her along the way."

Tom looked at him sideways. "Us?"

"Well, one of us would have to win out, I suppose," Severus said, clearing his throat. "But – in a manner of speaking – we're on the same side, as we're both fighting for her heart..."

"Didn't know you fancied her that much," Tom commented, examining him.

Severus met his eyes steadily, his Occlumency shields tightly shut.

"There are other ways," Tom said abruptly. "Ways where we wouldn't have to have her choose."

Severus stared at him. "Like what?"

"Triads are very strong, very powerful unions," Tom said, tossing himself back onto the bed. "She a very powerful witch – she took us all back in time 500 years, you realize? And us – we're both shaping up to be immensely powerful wizards. A triad with the three of us, her in the center. A triangle's the strongest shape, you know."

Severus carefully said nothing, and Tom rolled over.

"Just – think about it, Severus," Tom said quietly, yawning. "Us three, together. We'd be unstoppable. We could rule the world."

Severus had a hard time falling asleep that night. Though he knew Tom didn't know it, Triads had been outlawed since the 50s, found to be dark magic that corrupted the soul. The last one successfully pulled off had been Grindelwald's, with two of his followers, and both followers had gone mad and died in the end.

A Triad, with them and Hermione?

He shivered.

They'd be able to rule the world, all right, but what a twisted world it would be.


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

Severus woke the next day to the sound of people shouting.

Alarmed, he scrambled to his feet, grabbed his wand, and edged out of the tent, only to see the squad leaders forming a circle, cheering as they watched something inside.

"A duel?"

Severus glanced over at Tom, who had joined him at the opening.

"Seems like it," Severus said. "I wonder who."

They watched for a moment longer.

"I can't see Hermione in the circle," Severus said in a rush.

"We need to get dressed."

A scant sixty seconds later, Severus and Tom were running down the hill to join the crowd. Severus elbowed his way in and looked at the center.

Hermione and Harry were dueling.

It was an _amazing_ duel.

Both of them were incredibly fast. Curses and hexes were flung one right after the other, shielding spells going up at the last second and dissipating the moment after they were hit. They both seemed to alternate between shielding and physically dodging the bursts of light, depending on the color, and Severus wondered if they did so to practice dodging Unforgivables, which went directly through shields.

"Who offended whom?" Tom asked Ron, who was watching wide-eyed.

"No one. Hermione learned some new spells from her research the past couple days," Ron said, gesturing. "They're testing them to see if they're worth learning and using."

Suddenly, Hermione moved her wand in a vigorous, squiggly pattern Severus had never seen before.

"_Churasqayki!"_

A bolt of red light shot out, racing toward Harry quicker than the other spells.

"_Protego!"_

The bolt of red light shot directly through his shield, and the crowd collectively gasped. As the light hit, Harry was thrown to the ground, his wand arcing through the air to land in Hermione's hand, who looked astonished.

"A disarming charm?" Tom breathed. "There's never been one that can't be blocked."

"Can you imagine the advantage in battle?" Severus said, eyes wide. "Incredible."

Hermione helped Harry to his feet, who looked excited.

"This is excellent," he said, grinning. "Hermione, this is wonderful. Are there any others?"

Hermione bit her lip. "One," she said. "But it'll have to be tested on the field."

Harry's smile flickered, but he nodded.

"Right," he said. He turned to the crowd.

"Breakfast!" he announced loudly. "Gamma and Delta are on breakfast detail this morning, and Omega squad's on fire duty! Don't think I don't see you all, peeking out of your tents! Team leaders, with me!"

The leaders followed Harry a ways off. Feigning reluctance, Severus and Tom hurried back up the hill to the fire circle.

"What are they doing?" Severus said, using the flint.

"I'm not sure. Wait, no. It looks like Hermione's teaching them the squiggle she did," Tom said, craning his neck. "They're all practicing it, and she's correcting their wand movements."

"They're going to teach it to us," Severus said, his tone betraying his excitement. "We're going to learn forgotten magic."

"Harry just cast it successfully," Tom said. "Went right through Ron's shield. They're all trying it now."

Finally, _finally_, the fire caught, and Severus hurriedly built it up just as Regulus came out, yawning, Minerva and Neville trailing behind.

"You've already got the fire going?" he asked, blinking. He looked down the hill. "What's all that?"

"Hermione discovered a forgotten spell," Tom told him. "A disarming charm that can't be blocked."

Regulus' eyes went wide. "And they're practicing it?"

"To teach us after breakfast," Severus said, smug. "Hurry and help with the fire, will you?"

Breakfast seemed to drag on and on. The members that had seen Harry and Hermione duel had explained to the others what was going on, and though everyone ate as quickly as they could, the subsequent cleaning up and dishes seemed to take forever.

Finally, everyone was done, and the squad leaders lined up their squads to teach them the spell.

"We'll pair off to practice," Hermione said, withdrawing her own wand. "But for now, practice this wand motion."

She moved her wand slowly in two vertical figure eights, followed by a jab to the right.

"The main thing you have to get is the two vertical points each time and the ending point," Hermione said. "You have to hit all five points within a second, so be fast."

She demonstrated, moving her wand in the violent squiggle pattern. Severus almost couldn't see it – her wand was practically a blur.

"It'll take a bit of practice," she told them. "But let's practice that first. Try and get it to muscle memory, if you can."

Severus took out his wand and looked at it dubiously. Most fine charm-work he wasn't the best at. He hoped this new spell still fell into the violent brandishing category that most dueling spells did. Taking a moment to make sure no one was looking at him, he tried the figure.

After a few minutes, he was beginning to get the hang of it. Hermione'd been smart to mention the five points – by focusing on them, he was just able to get the figure completed in a second. The figure eights shrank as small as he could, and he was glad his wand was as whippy as it was – it seemed to make it a bit easier. He did it again, and Hermione grinned at him.

"Well done, Severus," she said. "I think you've got it now."

Tom flourished his wand and completed the movement a scant moment later, and Hermione laughed and nodded at him, taking his point. Tom glanced at Severus and raised an eyebrow, and Severus smirked in response.

The others took a bit longer. Minerva seemed to almost struggle with the speed of the wand movements, which were in direct contrast to the lengthy, meticulous movements of transfiguration, and Regulus was having trouble hitting all five points in time. Neville was the worst, though – he was too overzealous, making giant figurines in the air that took three seconds to complete.

Five minutes later, Hermione called a halt to their practice.

"I think most of you have got it down pretty well," she said. "Now we'll practice the incantation. Repeat after me. _Churasqayki._"

"_Churasqayki,_"they chorused."

"_Chur-as-kai-key,_" Hermione said clearly.

"_Churasqayki,"_ they said again, and Hermione beamed.

"Good. Now we'll pair off and try it. Severus with Tom," Hermione said, looking down the line. "Minerva with Regulus, and Neville with me."

Severus was momentarily dismayed that Hermione didn't choose to practice with him, when he'd been the best at it, but he realized a moment later that it made sense for the strongest to help the weakest. Mentally sighing, he moved over with Tom to get their own small dueling space.

"Take turns trying to effectively cast the spell," Hermione told them. "Whoever's not attempting it should shield. A properly-cast spell should disarm your opponent regardless of the shield's strength."

Severus and Tom withdrew their wands, each eyeing the other.

"_Churasqayki!"_

Severus scarcely had the chance to shield in time, but the spell deflected off his shield all the time. Tom scowled and tried again.

"_Churasqayki!"_

The spell was absorbed by his shield this time, and Severus focused on carefully watching Tom's movements as he attacked. When Tom didn't seem to finish the wand movements in time, the spell was absorbed. When his pronunciation wavered, it was deflected. Severus watched him carefully, murmuring the spell to himself as Tom cast again and again.

Tom succeeded on his seventh try, Severus' wand flying over to him in a long arc. Severus was surprised he hadn't been thrown back, but figured Tom had held back his power – he'd been focused on getting the incantation and wand movement right. Tom grinned and tossed his wand back.

"Your turn," he said, immediately casting a shield charm. "Let's see how long it takes you."

Severus straightened and prepared his wand.

"_Churasqayki!"_

The spell was absorbed. Nodding to himself, Severus resolved to move his wand faster.

"_Churasqayki!"_

That time, Severus knew he'd slipped on the third syllable, and he was unsurprised to see the spell deflect.

"Not as easy as you thought, is it?" Tom teased.

"Third time's the charm," Severus shot back. _"Churasqayki!"_

Tom went flying backwards, just as Harry had, and his wand landed on the ground just in front of Severus. Unable to stop himself from smirking, Severus stepped forward and picked it up.

"Nicely done, Severus!" Hermione said, clapping. "You too, Tom!"

Tom looked mildly annoyed, but quickly mollified under Hermione's praise. Hermione went back to coaching Neville a moment later, and Tom turned back to Severus and frowned.

"The wand movement's base is unlike any spell I know," Tom said. "You ever do a spell of this sort before?"

"Never," Severus said, shaking his head. "Though the incantation's the rough part, for me – saying a bloody Incan word instead of a Latinate..."

"Quechua," Tom corrected. "Incan isn't a language."

Severus rolled his eyes. "Whatever."

"Still..." Tom looked down the hill, and Severus followed his gaze to the Temple. "I wonder what other spells they made up on this sort of base."

"Hermione will probably teach us the other ones," Severus pointed out. "Harry made it sound like they'd found more than one earlier."

"True."

They took turns casting at each other repeatedly, trying to get the timing and incantation down to second nature. After they'd nearly mastered it, they took turns trying to cast it nonverbally, but they didn't come anywhere close to success.

"The Incan magic system is based in sound and position, not intent and directive," Hermione said, coming over to watch them. "I don't think any Incan magic will work non-verbally, from what I've found."

"Really?" Tom said, surprised. "I didn't know magic systems had different bases."

A smile played around Hermione's lips. "How many magic systems _do_ you know?"

Tom laughed. "Just the one."

"So if I cast this spell with the intent to maim, not disarm, it'll still only disarm?" Severus asked.

Hermione nodded. "I believe so."

"How odd," Severus mused, thinking on this. "On one hand, it greatly simplifies emotion-related error, but only to be replaced with multitude of more spells to be learned and cast uniquely."

"I came to a similar conclusion," Hermione agreed, and Severus felt a flush of pleasure at her words. "Luckily, most Incan spells are similar enough to the Latinate ones we customarily use, so there's no real need in learning them. There are a few that I'll teach everyone just so we have the advantage of our opponents not knowing what we're casting at them, but this was the only real treasure I found."

"Only real treasure?" Tom teased. "What of the heaps of gold?"

Hermione flushed, and Tom laughed, reaching out to touch her arm.

"Hermione's never been one for material gain," he told Severus, though Tom was looking at Hermione. "Pursuit of knowledge has always been her goal."

Hermione's flush darkened, and Severus felt a jolt of jealousy.

"The only treasure?" he murmured. "I thought you told Harry there was another valuable spell you found."

Hermione paused, her eyes darkening.

"There is another," she said. "I'll have to test it in combat, though – there's no suitable guinea pig around here for it."

"Will it be useful?" Tom inquired.

Hermione's eyes suddenly looked bleak.

"If it works, I suspect it will be very useful in a very limited number of specific cases. But the spell's extremely demanding," she admitted. "Using it in combat will probably render me incapacitated for an hour, so it's not something I plan on teaching anyone else."

"Are you sure you can't teach it to Potter or Black?" Severus gestured to the two, who were still failing to properly cast the Incan disarming charm. "Them incapacitating themselves early on in a battle would be a boon to our side. Otherwise, how can we keep the cast-happy duo out of the way?"

Hermione laughed, and Tom snickered.

"Be nice, Severus," she admonished, though her tone was teasing. "They have their uses."

"Spell cover," Severus said immediately, and Tom snickered.

"Trap bait," he said, nodding. "Another use."

"Public examples of screw-ups," Severus suggested.

"Cannon fodder," Tom added.

"Potential sacrifices."

"Emergency rations."

"Public laughingstock."

"Oh, stop it, you two," Hermione scolded, but her shoulders were quaking with suppressed laughter. She went back over to help Neville, who was casting in a trio with Minerva and Regulus, and Severus and Tom exchanged a smirk.

"I wonder what the other spell is," Tom mused aloud. "To incapacitate someone for so long? It must have a dramatic effect."

"It must have a complicated effect," Severus said, considering. "Dramatic effect spells just require a lot of power behind them – it's not hard to _Diffindo_ someone's arm off or _Fiendfyre_ their skin into melting if you've got the necessary magical core to handle it."

Tom gave Severus a surprised look, then grinned.

"I should have known you'd be the type to consider _Fiendfyre_ a simple spell," he smirked. "Never cast it though, have you?"

"You haven't either," Severus challenged immediately. "If you had, you'd be soul-sick."

"You know, I wonder," Tom said, watching Hermione cast in demonstration once more. "How much is known about soul-sickness, really?"

"Probably a lot more in Hermione's time than we know in ours," Severus pointed out.

Tom nodded reluctantly. "Didn't think of that."

They went back to practicing the new disarming charm until everyone in the entire club had mastered it, the sun hot and high in the sky as they dueled.


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9**

The next morning, Severus woke to find the leaders in quiet discussion.

"What now?" Regulus wondered. "New spells? New strategy?"

"Think about it," Tom told him, working on breakfast. "We've done all we can here. We're going somewhere else now, I bet."

As the camp ate breakfast, the leaders began taking down and packing up the tents, and there was a murmur of excitement through the crowd. Everything was packed up and ready to go by the time breakfast had been finished and the dishes cleaned.

"Transportation formation," Harry announced.

Everybody got into formation, but Hermione refused to give them her hand.

"Here," she said, handing out small amulets. "These will activate in two minutes. Put it around your neck, and make sure it's touching your skin."

"What's it do?" Neville asked.

Hermione rolled her eyes. "Magic."

"I figured that. What type of magic, though?" Neville asked again. Hermione gave him a look, and Neville flushed. "Right."

Severus slipped his around his neck, making sure the stone rested against his chest. He grabbed onto Hermione's thumb, keeping a mental countdown.

"Everybody ready?" Harry called out. "Okay. When we arrive, listen to your squad leader, and move quickly. Here we go-!"

The wind picked up, and the scenery blurred. Multicolored fogs swamped them from every side, and the wind started howling, tugging on them, as if trying to separate them all. When they finally settled down, they all staggered a moment upon landing.

It was dark and windy, and sand was blowing up into his eyes. Severus squinted into the darkness, curious, and he could just make out fires far away, down by what looked like a river.

"Be ready to move," Hermione said quietly. "Follow me. No touching artifacts or gold this time. We're strictly looking for scrolls and bound tomes. The other squads will be taking care of other finds. Thirty seconds now."

"Where are we?" Severus whispered.

"I can't tell," Tom whispered back. "It's too dark."

"Five," Hermione said. "Four. Three. Two. One."

Suddenly, Severus could see, as if his eyes had changed into a cat's. He glanced down at his amulet, and was jolted to see himself mimicking his surroundings.

"Disillusion and night-eye amulets?" Tom said aloud. "I didn't think those spells could be grounded to amulets."

"Join hands," Hermione told them quietly. "Let's go!"

Severus didn't move quick enough to get a hold of Hermione's hand – Tom got that honor – so he grabbed onto Tom and Regulus, who grabbed onto Minerva, who carried up the end with Neville, and they all started running across the sand.

Running on the sand was difficult, and Severus could feel sand slipping into his shoes as he ran. Sand was also in the air, carried on the wind, and Severus had to squint against the gale to keep his eyes safe. There were cheers from behind them, and Severus glanced back to see a large party of people gathering around a river, fires and giant gold decorations glittering in the night.

"A party?" he whispered.

Hermione heard him. "The Feast of Thuthi," she murmured back. "Almost there, now."

"Feast of Thuthi?" Tom echoed. "Never heard of it."

"It's the Festival of the Dead, celebrated at sunset on the banks of the Nile," Hermione said, urging them along.

"The _Nile_?" Tom said incredulously. "That means-"

There was an odd, popping sensation as they darted through a shield, and suddenly, a huge gleaming white pyramid loomed in front of them.

"We're in Egypt?" Neville said faintly.

"Apparently," Severus said, staring up at the colossal structure.

"Let's _go!_" Hermione urged.

Together, they ran down a small hill to the entrance, where Harry was already working on unlocking the door.

"We have half an hour," he told his own squad. "Disarm and disengage _only_. Only scan for red and blue lights, remember. Retrieval will be handled by someone else!"

His squad took off into the pyramid, and the other squad leaders held their own back for a moment. Severus glanced around uneasily into the darkness around them, but he could only see sand. Next to them, Ginny and Luna were handing out cameras.

"Take photos of _everything_ all the walls," Ginny instructed. "If it has a faint green glow, someone's already photographed it. If any of you stop to touch _anything_, I will personally string you up."

"Here."

Severus turned, and Hermione handed him a blue velvet bag.

"All scrolls and tomes go in the bag," she told them all, passing the rest of them out. "They're spelled to expand, stay light, and prevent magical discharges and interactions."

"How long do we have?" Tom asked.

"Not nearly long enough," Hermione admitted. "Ready? Let's go!"

As if on some unseen mark, all the squad leaders led their teams into the pyramid at the same time. As soon as they all got past the entrance way, everyone scattered, and Severus took off to the left.

The first room he came to only had a couple scrolls on a stone bench, which quickly went into his bag. He ignored the piles of artifacts and giant sarcophagus and went into the adjoining room to grab the tomes he found there.

All scrolls, tomes, and books were glowing a faint yellow, and Severus wondered how they'd managed to individually code each group's amulets to illuminate what they needed to look for as he grabbed and loaded his bag with books. Coming to a dead end, Severus turned around and went back to the entrance way, going in the next left-most hallway.

This time, at the end, there was a huge room, filled with treasures, and several other members scrambling around, grabbing things.

"Omega?" an Indian-looking girl asked him. "Good. There are a ton of books in the back on a set of shelves."

She then proceeded to ignore him, instead taking careful photos of the wall with a camera. Severus darted past her to the back and began loading his bag with the books he found there.

"Ron said not to touch those!"

Severus spared a glance up to see Emily Abbott poking Abraxas Malfoy sharply in the chest.

"I'm not _in_ Beta squad," Abraxas said frostily. "I'm _supposed_ to be picking up strange potions and ingredients."

Emily faltered.

"Oh. I- you looked like someone in my squad," she said. "Sorry."

Abraxas gave her a haughty look and continued putting the oddly-shaped bottles in his bag, while Emily went back to taking seemingly random pieces of jewelry.

Severus had just managed to finish unloading the bookcase of books when he heard an explosion echo from far away. He and the others in the room all exchanged a horrified glance, grabbed the last bit of what they could, and hurried back to the entrance way.

Severus could hear Harry yelling before he made it all the way back.

"-you _thinking_, trying a ring _on_?!" Harry demanded, grabbing someone by the front of their robes and shaking them violently. "I should let you die here, you stupid, greedy fool!"

To Severus' astonishment, it was James Potter that Harry was shaking so hard, with green roots growing out from his skin. He looked terrified and very sick, and when he whimpered, Harry growled at him and let go.

"Oh, shut up. You _won't_ die. Hermione?"

"Here."

Hermione came around the corner of the right-most door, breathing very hard and skidding to a stop. Harry waved at the mess in front of him, consisting of James, collapsed on the floor.

"Are you done? Can you take care of this?"

"Sure," Hermione said, slinging a black velvet back over her shoulder. "James, just grab onto me-"

James reached up and clutched her hand, and with a loud _CRACK_, they were gone.

"Draco," Harry said shortly. "Status report?"

"They definitely heard the explosion from when he triggered the ring's trap," Draco said, disgustedly. "Blaise and his team are stalling them on broomstick to distract them, but they'll be here in five, ten minutes tops."

"Then _go!_" Harry yelled. "This entire pyramid needs cleaned out before they get here! Hurry!"

Severus took off, running into a new room. There wasn't anything glowing yellow there, so he skidding and ran to another room, this one finding several scrolls. He hurriedly shoved them into his bag, gave the room a cursory glance for anything more, and started running down the hallway.

"Snape!"

A girl with pink hair was looking at him, and Severus skidded to a stop.

"What?" he said.

"This way," she said, and vanished through a doorway. Severus followed her quickly, only to see a giant pit before him.

"It's an illusion!" the girl called to him. "Jump down, and you'll land six feet down. There's a ton of books!"

Gritting his teeth, Severus jumped, landing hard on his shoes. He grimaced.

"Nicely done," the girl said cheerily. "Well, I'm off to find another trap!"

She hauled herself up out of the pit, and Severus glanced around, goggling at the sheer number of books and scrolls she'd found. Mentally groaning, Severus raced around the room, toppling them into his bag haphazardly.

He'd only barely finished when there was a sharp whistle, and he could hear Harry yelling.

"Everybody, get back here! You have 60 seconds!"

Severus hurriedly cast a levitation charm to get himself out of the pit. Scrambling for purchase on the stones, he sprinted through the maze back to the entrance hallway, skidding to a stop.

"Everyone here?" Harry demanded, yelling through the temple. "You have 20 seconds!"

Severus saw Tom duck out from the rightmost room that Hermione had been in, wearing a carefully neutral expression, and Severus made a mental note to ask him about it later. Blaise's squad came rushing in, brooms in hand, and everybody scrambled to get into Transportation formation.

"We've got barely a minute before they get here," Blaise said, breathless. "Where's Granger?"

There was a loud _CRACK_.

"Go," Hermione urged, pushing James over to Blaise. She turned to Omega squad. "Everybody ready?"

Severus grabbed onto her thumb, carefully examining her face for any signs of harm. Her eyes met his and her eyes widened in surprise.

"Ready?" Harry yelled. "Everyone here?"

There was a chorus of "yes" as someone began to pound on the door.

"Now!"

The sand and wind hurt as they abruptly Transported away, fog pressing in on them again. When they stopped, they were in a thick forest.

"Where are we?" Regulus whispered.

The leaders shushed him, and everyone kept quiet. Severus watched Harry, who was sharply alert.

"Everyone who has an animagus form, disrobe and change," Harry said quietly. "Over there, next to Ron. Boys on his left, girls on his right. We'll be joining in the Druid festival. Listen to everything you can. Talking won't be necessary."

"The rest of you – or those with unhelpful animagus forms," Harry amended. "Put a drop of your blood on your amulets to refresh them. You'll be in charge of copying the ritual tattoos and scrolls scattered about. I trust you all remember the Replicating spell from Charms class? Now separate."

"What counts as an unhelpful animagus form?" Tom hissed to Severus, as they both moved off to the left to change.

"Something like a fish, maybe," Severus guessed, quiet.

"I think he was talking about the leaders' forms," Minerva said, joining them. "From what I've heard, only Ron has a useful one. Everyone else's is a magical creature."

"A _magical_ creature?" Severus repeated. "How is that possible?"

"Neville didn't know – he was the one that told me. But I know Blaise is a Re'em, and I think Luna turns into a Crumple-horned Snorlack, whatever that is. Ron only turns into a dog."

"Oi."

Ron grinned at them as they reached him, but his grin was strained.

"We're going to be joining in the festival as celebrants," he said. "You're going to transform, and when you transform back, you won't have any clothes on – the Druids haven't mastered that magic yet, and we need to blend in. We're there simply to distract the Druids and Archdruids so the others have a chance to get everything we need. Any questions?"

Tom promptly put his hand up.

"Yes, Riddle?"

"If we're joining in the Circling of Creatures," Tom said, "afterward will be a traditional feast, right?"

Ron frowned. "Yes."

"Are we to partake in all aspects of the feast?" Tom challenged, his eyes glinting.

Ron looked uncomfortable.

"I- I don't think so," Ron said, his eyes darting around. "Hopefully, the others will be done before things get too intense. Of course, if you absolutely have to, I'd advise you to go along with it. But other than that..."

He trailed off, his face red, and Severus shot Tom a questioning look, but Tom ignored it.

"Anyway," Ron said briskly. "It's almost time. The others look ready, so strip and transform. Leave your amulets on. I'll lead the way."

Ron tugged off his shirt, tossing it over a nearby branch, and with great reluctance, Severus began to undress himself determinedly not looking at anyone else. As soon as he was nude, he transformed, feeling his body shrink in on itself, his arms stretching out wide as leathery wings formed. When he was done, he clicked his throat and squinted. At least it was dusk – the eyes of a bat were even worse in broad daylight. Next to him, Tom had turned into a black panther, and Severus felt consumed with jealousy.

Out of the forest ahead of them, there was a loud cry. Ron, who had turned into a large basset hound, woofed and ran out of the forest into the clearing, and they all went after him to the festival.

They were at Stonehenge, Severus realized. A large circle of animals danced and flew in great circles around the stones, and the druids too young to be tattooed were chanting and singing and stomping their feet, watching animatedly. Severus flew over the stones in several wide circles, clicking his mouth and using his radar frequently, his weak eyes peering around for the others.

There! That was Harry – Severus could just make out his ragged hair and height – copying a scroll over by the food table. And there was Hermione – she was with Regulus and Neville, hurriedly copying down inscriptions from several large, ceremonial tablets. Severus watched as he flew around and around and around, wondering what the tablets and scrolls said.

There was a great cawing as a giant bird flew into their midst, and almost immediately, the animals began to change back into humans. Surprised, Severus landed neatly and transformed back behind a stone, suddenly uneasy. He'd forgotten that now they had to socialize naked.

"Come on, Severus," Tom said, catching up with him and clapping him on the back. "They're Druids. They've got no hang-ups about looks or the like. Come on."

Reluctantly, Severus left the safety of the stone to join the crowd of others, and Severus stopped short to stare. All of his fellow members now had tattoos mimicking those of the druids – brilliant blue armbands and Celtic knotwork going all the way down their sides to the ground. Severus glanced down and was surprised to see the same thing on himself.

"Hermione must have altered the Primary Amulet," Tom said, looking over the others. "She had to work fast, to imitate their tattoos so fast."

They settled down at the feasting tables. Tom immediately took up conversation with the Archdruid to his right, and Severus helped himself to some sort of roast bird as he looked around.

Minerva looked determinedly relaxed despite her nakedness, offering a boy next to her wine. Ron was flirting with three girls at once, completely unfazed by his nakedness.

"Don't take too much food," Tom warned him, grinning at a girl across the table. "The leaders are going to try and get us out of here as soon as possible."

"Why?" Severus asked.

"After a while, couples go off from the feast to fornicate," Tom told him, taking a long drink of wine. "I doubt the Harry wants us here long enough for that."

"They're going to take us away before the sex?" Severus watched as the Weasley twins sat down on either side of Tom, both uncomfortably close.

"Now, that's a damned shame," Fred announced, helping himself to Tom's steak. "We've all been running around, salvaging temples and all-"

"And the one time there's an opportunity to have fun," George continued, not missing a beat, "they're just going to take it away from us?"

"Crying shame," Fred said, shaking his head.

"Damned inconsiderate."

"Flat-out cruel."

"Horribly short-sighted."

"If they do take us away before the sex, it will hardly be because they don't want us having sex," Severus pointed out. "Sex in the tents or between members isn't forbidden – only pregnancy is."

Fred and George exchanged a look.

"Just what-"

"-do you think-"

"they want us-"

"to avoid, then?"

Severus felt dizzy from turning to the speaker so fast. He shook his head briefly, then continued.

"Well, we're at a Druid festival, right? They'd probably be doing sex magic."

Fred and George looked startled, while Tom looked intrigued.

"Sex magic?" Fred said finally. "There isn't such a thing."

"Believe me," George added fervently. "We'd have heard about it."

"Not if you were Gryffindors," Tom said, pointing at them with a bone from a chicken leg. "Sex magic is so old and forgotten that it's generally only mentioned in dark texts. It's very powerful stuff, and there are some insane things you can do with it."

"The only sex magic still known is all binding magic," Severus continued. "Sex magic to bind one person to another, magic to bind their magical cores together, that sort of thing. But druids-"

"All druid magic is based on binding," Tom said, nodding. "Binding molecules together, binding themselves to the earth, undoing the bonds of other things."

"The druids probably came up with sex magic," Severus agreed. "If we participated, at the very least, we could end up bound to someone for the rest of our lives. At the worst, we could have our lifespans bounds together."

"A bit of a detriment, if you ask me."

They all turned to see Ron, who was smirking at them all.

"Should have figured you were the clever lot who'd figure it out," Ron said. "Should have listened to Hermione – she was all for telling you up-front about why you should avoid flirting too much. Yes, the druids are going to do sex magic. And it's much better if we're far, far away before then."

"Why?" Fred said, his voice annoyed. "Having matching lifespans with witch isn't so bad."

Ron raised an eyebrow.

"And what of when we transport away?" Ron said. "And we go 300 years into the future, when your bonded is long since dead and gone?"

Fred winced. "You might have a point."

"Now come on," Ron said, clapping the twins on the back. "Get ready to say your good-byes. Draco's just sent word that there's going to be a bit of a distraction, and we're all to run back to the clearing where we arrived and get ready to go."

"A bit of a distraction?" Tom asked. "What does that-"

There was a loud, deafening roar, and Severus' eyes darted up to see a huge burst of flame engulf the stones of the henge, and a colossal silver dragon flying overhead. Around the tables, druids started screaming. There was a mad dash to reach the trees as far away from the dragon as possible.

Ron snorted.

"Well, at least it worked," Ron said. "Come on now, let's go!"

They all ran after Ron into the trees _toward_ the dragon.

"Wait," Severus yelled, his mind boggling. "Is that dragon-?"

"Draco? Yeah," Ron called back. "It's his Animagus form."

Tom and Severus looked at each other in astonishment as they sprinted to the clearing.

As they reached the clearing, Draco was landing neatly in front of them, dropping out of the air into his human form, landing nimbly on the ground.

"You have one minute to put your clothes on and form the Transportation arrangement," he directed. "The others should be here-"

"We're here!" Ginny said, barreling through the bushes with the others at her heels. "Ready?"

They scrambled to dress and quickly latch hands.

"Where's Hermione?" Harry demanded, panting. "We can't-"

There was asmall _pop_ and a gust of wind, and Hermione suddenly appeared, perfectly in position.

"Everybody ready?" she asked, completely calm.

"Blimey, 'Mione," Ron said. "Where did you-?"

Hermione ignored him.

"Hold on everyone – this one will be a big one!"

The transportation was worse this time – the wind shrieked in Severus' ears, making his ear drums feel like they were bleeding. The colored fog stung his eyes, and there was a terrifying sensation of falling. When they finally stopped, Severus' stomach was rolling and heaving. Fred and George were vomiting off to the side, and Severus was glad he hadn't eaten much.

"Where are we now?" Regulus asked, looking around. "Are we going to be running away again in another half-hour?"

Severus looked around. They appeared to be on some sort of woven wooden dock, with water and reeds surrounding them. In the distance, he could see what looked to be villages, and there were people with straw hats working in fields.

"Sudan?" Severus guessed. "Mongolia?"

"Turn around, you idiot," hissed Tom, and Severus turned.

A huge pagoda towered over them, with bright red roofing and enormous golden gates. There were ominous looking guards outside of the gates, and a party of a few guards was walking directly towards them.

"Hermione," Neville squeaked. "I think they can see us."

Severus saw Hermione roll her eyes. "I know, Neville."

To Severus' surprise, Hermione stepped forward and bowed deeply to the head of the guards, who bowed back even more deeply. They spoke for a moment in an odd, chittering language, before Hermione turned back to them.

"Everything good?" Harry said cautiously. "No last second surprises?"

"We're fine," Hermione assured him. "Just a question of when we'll get started." she turned to look at the others. "At the request of the emperor, our quarters have been arranged, and we will be staying for two months," she said, grinning. "Welcome to the Forbidden City."

Severus had no idea how it had been arranged, but their whole group was escorted through the palace to the dining hall, where they were given a lavish feast.

"Now _this_ is food!" George crowed, helping himself to some duck. "None of that roots and fruits thing the druids had going on!"

"So – we're staying here?" Severus asked, looking around for someone who could answer. His eyes met Luna's, the airy-seeming blonde, and she smiled serenely.

"We're staying here," she confirmed. "For two months. Harry, Ron, and Hermione have arranged for us all to be taught Chinese methods of magic."

"Methods of magic?" Tom repeatedly. "What, we're going to learn their entire magical system in two months?"

"Something like that," Luna said, smiling.

"Now wait just a minute," Cormac McLaggen objected, pointing with a chopstick. "Why did we go from running and raiding an Egyptian tomb to immediately crashing a druid party to here? Before with the Incan place, it was considerably well-paced out, with a bit of action separated by a bit of boringness. Today, it's been action-action-action, now, boom! Two months of studying?"

Luna looked at him and wiggled her ears. "You have wrackspurts coming out of your head, you know," she told him seriously.

"Maybe Hermione's going to go over the research we found from both places while the rest of us study," Minerva suggested from farther down the table. "It may have been nerve-wracking, but we pulled it off well enough."

"The bit at the end was terrifying, though," Regulus said, shuddering. "Hermione telling us to go on ahead like that, that she'd catch up? I was petrified she'd get captured and we'd have to leave without her. Thank Merlin she Apparated to us in time." "

"I wonder why she wants us to learn Chinese magic now," Neville said. "Will we have classes like in Hogwarts, you think?"

Conversation turned to speculation of what sort of magic they might learn, and Severus turned to Tom, quietly casting Muffliato.

"You noticed it too, right?" Severus asked. "That Hermione didn't just Apparate to us?"

"With the wind and fog that came with her?" Tom scoffed. "Of course. It was obvious she transported to us."

"None of the others endangered their lives this time, though," Severus pointed out. "And if she stayed behind in the clearing with the druids, sending the others ahead of her..."

"You think she was with the druids? Why would..." Tom's eyes widened. "Their sex magic," he breathed. "You think Hermione was watching to learn?"

"I think she probably documented the entire orgy," Severus admitted. "If she was going to study it, though, then why were we forbidden from it?"

"Participating and passively studying are two very different things," Tom said laughing, clapping Severus on the back. "Surely you can't compare watching a couple shag to actually shagging someone yourself?"

Severus muttered something non-committal, and Tom laughed.

"Maybe she'll let us go back, then, after she figures all the magic out," Tom said, flicking his wand to disperse the Muffliato spell. "Can someone pass the quail?"

Severus mostly ignored and sparingly participated in the conversation the rest of the meal, his mind still wondering back to the incident with the Druids.

Had Hermione really stayed behind to watch sex magic? Did she participate? If not, how did she get close enough to watch them without them noticing? A Disillusionment spell at such close-quarters wouldn't work.

More than anything, Severus wondered what this crazy journey was all about. Studying ancient Incan magic steeped in human sacrifice, raiding tombs of the dead, and copying down druid binding rituals seemed more than slightly dark.

Severus cast a sideways glance up at the head of the table, where Harry and Hermione were talking to the emperor. The emperor had a commanding presence, but even he fell silent when Harry spoke, and he and his advisors nodded along to whatever was being said.

All the leaders seemed to follow this Harry unquestioningly, even Hermione. He seemed a charismatic leader, and he was teaching them powerful forgotten magics. He was even going to give them all untold material wealth as well, it seemed – all the magicless treasure was being kept in a communal chest, where it would be divided evenly at the end of their adventure, he had told them.

Severus watched as Hermione laid a hand on Harry's shoulder, whispering something into his ear, and Severus felt jealousy prickle at the edges of his mind.


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10**

The hardest part of learning Chinese magic was learning Chinese.

Their teachers has been given amulets of translation, so all lessons occurred in English. The actual spells and incantations, however, were all in Chinese, and the they spent about a week just mastering the pronunciation of certain syllables and all the tones.

The Chinese didn't use wands, either – at least, not at this point in time. Instead, they used rings. From what Severus could gather, precious cut gemstones were imbued with magic and then set into rings of various metals. Each ring was a different size, a different metal, and had a different gemstone, and like wands, the ring chose the wearer.

Severus had gotten a silver ring with small emeralds set around the band. This indicated he was more in harmony with the earth element, his instructors had told him. Earth was good, solid, and strong, and the instructors enthusiastically approved of the match.

Minerva had gotten a sapphire, the gem of the water element, and both Neville and Regulus had gotten diamonds, gems of the air. Tom had gotten a silver ruby ring, the gem of fire, and all the instructors had seemed to relax at the match, as if they'd been dreading he would pull out a ring of doom.

The magic rings were worn on the middle finger of the dominant hand, and spells were cast through hand gestures, movements, and finger groupings in tandem with incantations. Here, Severus excelled – finally, he seemed to have grown into his body, and suddenly his long limbs and fingers weren't awkward appendages anymore, but implements of grace and power.

Here, magic seemed to leap at his fingertips, a far contract to the tedious wand-flicking and painstaking swish-and-flick practice of home. With a dramatic twirl and foreign-sounding word, he could make a room full of candles burst into flame, his robes billowing in a rush of wind.

Chinese magic was much more theatrical, Severus found, and therefore more enchanting to the user as well. Here were the mystic words and grand gestures Severus had read about as a child, had been excited to learn ever since he knew about Hogwarts. Even more, Severus could _feel _the magic he cast here. At Hogwarts, a spell could no longer be felt easily after it left the wand, and only in the magical core of the user. With Chinese magic, he could feel the powers he was calling on respond to his command, flow through him, and then rush out to obey his will.

For the first time in a long time, Severus felt at peace with himself and happy, almost. He loved memorizing new, foreign-sounding spells and moving his fingers in new ways to get the desired result, and he felt like he was growing up in the process as he swished and flicked his body and arms. His success bolstered his confidence, and Severus suddenly felt good about himself, and he suspected it showed. He'd taken to wearing his fullest black robe with wide sleeves around the palace. It mimicked the long, full robes of their teachers, and like the robes of the instructors, it billowed whenever he cast spells or walked strongly down the halls.

Everything about China was thrilling, and Severus reveled in it.

Not everyone was having such a good time of it, though. Regulus and Neville still struggled with their pronunciations, and Minerva's hands were awkward as they moved through the air. Most of the Young Adventurer's Club members seemed to have a degree of difficulty with Chinese magic, much more than they'd had learning the same spells at Hogwarts, Severus suspected. The biggest surprise, through, came from Tom.

Never would Severus have expected Tom to struggle with any sort of magic, but struggle he did. Each spell he cast was a struggle, and Severus could see the challenge he faced as Tom fought with each spell. Tom refused Severus' help, though at times, Severus cold hear him practicing long into the night.

Though the other squad leaders attended their lessons with them, learning and laughing right there along with the rest, Harry and Hermione were rarely seen. Occasionally, Severus would catch a glimpse of them in a pagoda, working together, or walking with the emperor in the halls. They were always talking and always together. Though it was easy to forget during the day, surrounded by new, exciting magic, at night, Severus would think of Hermione and how she'd smiled at him when they'd first met, and his stomach would clench as if something was missing, pulling him forward into the unknown.

"Pair up," Hueng said, clapping his hands. "Elemental shields. Do not forget the proper counters!"

Severus turned to Tom, who scowled down at his ring.

"Oh, why not?" he snapped. He talked over to their customary corner, leaving Severus to follow, wondering what was frustrating Tom now.

They took turns casting and shielding. Severus favored earth attacks and shields, he discovered immediately. Water was the hardest for him to cast, but he soon mastered that as well.

Tom, meanwhile, was methodically beating each spell into submission, growing angrier and angrier all the while. Severus watched but said nothing as Tom battled his way through earth, air, and water, each spell feeling angrier and more forceful as he cast.

Finally, Tom deemed his water casting acceptable, though it was no where near the level of Severus' casting, and moved onto fire. He raised his hand, preparing, and Severus lowered himself into a defensive stance, ready.

"_Zháowàngfāqǐ!"_

A huge wave of flame erupted from his hand, a far cry from the bolts and ribbons of flame the spell was supposed to produce.

"_Dìtǔbǎofáng!"_

Instinctively, Severus shielding with the earthen shielding spell, but instead of a sphere of green energy protecting him, a towering wall of dirt appeared around him in a sphere, and a moment later, he felt the flames engulf him and his shield as the air grew hot. Around his finger, Severus felt his ring break, and it was all he could do to hold his shield together as he felt his spell slowly fail.

When the assault was finally over, Severus let his shield collapse, his shattered emeralds tinkling to the ground. He looked up to find Tom staring at his own middle finger, a decisive crack running up the center of his solitaire stone.

Tom looked up, and they both stared at each other for a long moment.

"You okay?" Tom said, lowering his hand.

"Yeah."

There was a pause.

"What was that?" Severus asked finally.

Tom gave his ring a dark look. "No idea."

"You need a new stone."

Severus looked up to see Hueng looking at them, his arms folded and his lips pursed.

"You, your stone broke under the power," Hueng said, nodding to Severus. "Nothing to be ashamed of. Lots of power – stones overload. But _you-_"

He broke off, giving Tom a suspicious look.

"You will need to see your masters about this," he said darkly. He led them to the doorway and pointed down the hall. "On the lake. In the pavilion. Go."

He shut the door firmly behind them. Tom gave Severus a skeptical look.

"_Masters?_" he repeated.

Severus raised an eyebrow. "One way to find out."

They headed off down the hallway and through the doors to the lake. They followed the dock around a corner, the pavilion gradually coming into view, along with two familiar figures.

"I wouldn't call Harry and Hermione our _masters_," Tom commented, an undertone of annoyance in his voice.

"Neither would I. And neither would they," Severus pointed out sharply. "Hueng must have mistranslated."

Hermione looked up as they approached.

"Tom. Severus," she said. She didn't sound surprised to see them. She gestured to the empty sofa bench across from her and Harry. "Please, join us. Have a seat."

Tom and Severus sat down, and Harry and Hermione resumed their conversation. They were discussing how best to layer wards on the emperor's tomb. The wards they were talking about were advanced wards, but they were all wards Severus was passingly familiar with, and he tuned out the conversation and looked around. There was a pitcher of water with some glasses on a tray at one end of the table between the couches, and some scrolls laid out on the rest of it. They looked to be copies of some of the ones taken from the Egyptian pyramid they had raided, and there were notes in different colored inks scribbled in the margins. Some of the diagrams looked ominous, and Severus strained to remember where he'd seen similar runes.

Tom nudged Severus, breaking his concentration. Severus looked up at Tom, who nodded at the others. Curious, Severus looked.

Harry and Hermione were still talking, and at first, Severus didn't notice anything unusual about them. It was only when Harry gestured that Severus caught a glint of metal on his hand, and then Severus straightened in surprise. Harry wasn't wearing a normal magic ring, like Severus and his classmates wore, with either an emerald, diamond, ruby, or sapphire. Instead, Harry wore a silver ring with a black stone in the middle, looking almost ominous against his hand.

His eyes darted to Hermione to look at her ring. He caught a glimpse of it as she pushed her hair behind her ear. A vivid, golden-orange stone glittered out from a gold ring, and Severus was surprised to see it sparkle so. He'd never seen such a gem.

It took him a moment to notice, but Harry was wearing a matching ring on the middle finger of his left hand. Severus shot Tom a look, but Tom could only shrug.

As Harry and Hermione finished their discussion, Hermione visibly relaxed, and Severus found himself cursing his inattention, wondering what she had been stressed about. She stretched, arching her back, before finally turning to face Severus and Tom.

"It's good to see you two," she said warmly. "How are you enjoying China?"

Severus was caught off-guard by her pleasure at talking to them, but he hid it well.

"I'm enjoying it," he admitted. "I enjoy the Chinese magic system, though I still don't know any the core principles of it. I think I might actually prefer it to the magic of Hogwarts."

Hermione's eyes danced.

"I had a feeling you might," she told him. She turned to Tom. "What about you?"

Her question was genuine, but Tom scowled in response.

"I hate it," he said vehemently. "I'm _crap _at this magic system. I can't get anything to work. I can't wait until we leave."

He glared at the floor, and Severus averted his eyes, almost embarrassed for him. Harry and Hermione exchanged a knowing glance.

"Why don't you explain why you came out here," Harry suggested, and then Tom was off, telling him all about the lesson.

Severus was surprised to hear Tom voice his struggles with Chinese magic for the first time. Tom described how he was able to feel forces all around him fine, but how when he tried to command them, they refused, and he had to agonizingly force them into submission.

He described the exercise with the shield spells as one of growing resistance, with the elements refusing to help him. By the time he pulled on fire, he felt the force _break _and spiral out of control into the blast that had engulfed Severus, destroying both their rings in the process.

Hermione and Harry exchanged a look.

"I'd like to try an experiment, Tom," Hermione said briskly. She handed him an emerald ring made of silver. "Try to levitate the glass with this ring."

Tom put the ring on and gestured. _"Qǐshēng."_

The cup staggered into the air, shaky, before clattering back down.

"How did it feel?" Hermione asked, watching him closely.

Tom shrugged.

"The same as ever," he said. "Like everything's fighting me."

He took off the ring and held it out to Hermione, who demurred.

"Give it to Severus," she said. "You had silver and emeralds on your ring, right?"

Severus was surprised she knew. "I did," he said, taking the ring. "Thank you." There was a welcoming hum of power as he slipped it onto his finger, and Severus instantly felt more at-ease.

"Tom, try this ring. Same exercise."

Hermione held out her own ring to him, and Tom put it on and flexed his fingers, experimental.

"_Qǐshēng."_

Nothing happened. The glass didn't move at all, and Tom's eyes widened in surprise.

"I felt nothing," Tim said, staring down at the ring. "I didn't even feel magic touch me. It's as if I'm suddenly a Muggle."

Harry gave Hermione a pointed look.

"Here, Tom," he said, leaning forward. "Try mine."

Tom took off Hermione's ring and set it aside. As he slid Harry's black-stoned ring on, an expression of wonder came over his face.

"They're not fighting me anymore," he said, his tone dazed. "The elements. I think – I think they'll obey me, now."

Hermione gestured to the glass on the table. Tom looked at it and held out his hand, a rare nervous, excited expression on his face.

"_Qǐshēng."_

The entire table leapt into the air, and Tom laughed in unrestrained relief and joy. He made the table zoom around the pavilion before finally setting it down.

"I can do it," he said, thrilled. "I _can _do it. Why couldn't I do it before?"

"You were using the wrong element," Hermione told him simply. "That's all. I'll get you another ring, like Harry's. It'll work better for you."

She refused to say anything more on the subject, and it was only after hours, under the cover of Disillusionment and a few sneaking spells that Severus and Tom found the answer in the emperor's sacred library, with the aid of several heavy translation charms.

The Chinese had five classical elements, they discovered. Not four.

Chi, sui, ka, fū, and kū.

Earth, water, fire, wind, and void.

Void.

Their eyes grew large as they continued to read. Void was considered the evil element, they read, the element that brought disharmony and leeched away life. Though some mages could only work magic with a ring of jet, the stone of void, it was a warning sign – few wizards with jet rings did not go down the path of disharmony and darkness.

"Okay. So I'm at risk to be a Dark wizard. I get that," Tom told Severus once they were back in their rooms. "I get it. That explains why Neville's always antsy around me. So I just have to be extra careful not to turn to the Dark Arts. Big deal."

"But what I _don't_ get," Tom continued, his eyes flashing, "is why out fearless leader is _also_ wearing a ring of jet. Why isn't anyone uneasy around _him?_"

It was a good question, and Severus didn't know how to respond.


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11**

"Severus!" Hermione looked up in surprise. "What are you doing out here?"

Severus looked down at her, one eyebrow quirked. She was sitting alone in one of the gardens, and he'd gone to great pains to seek her out.

"Skipping class," he told her. Hermione gave him a dark look, but Severus brushed it off. "The instructors are reviewing today, and I already learned it all the first time around. I figured I could learn more from you."

Hermione quirked an eyebrow. "Learn _what _from me, exactly?"

"The things they're not telling us," Severus told her. "The basis of their magic system, for one. What it means to be dominant in void, for another. What gemstone is on _your_ ring, and what it represents-"

"This?" Hermione said, looking down at her ring. She looked back up. "It's a fire opal."

"Fine. What element does it signify?"

"Life."

Severus paused.

"The Chinese don't have an element of life," he said.

"They do. They just haven't formally discovered it yet."

Severus gave her a look, and Hermione flushed.

"I'm telling the truth," she insisted. "The entire Chinese magic system is based on harmony. Water balances fire, air balances earth, and life balances void."

"For example," she continued, "when you levitate something, you harmonize it with the air. When you set it back down, you harmonize it with the earth. I think that's why you're so good at Chinese magic."

Severus hid his surprise. "Because it's based on harmony?"

"Your potions expertise seems to flow from a natural understanding of the core natures of ingredients," Hermione explained. "Whenever you've been making improvements to potions, you've harmonized the forces better."

Severus felt flattered despite himself.

"What of void, then?" he asked. "How can Tom use a ring of nothingness?"

Hermione smile faded away.

"The other elements react to void through fear," she said. "Everything alive fears being nothing."

"And yours?" Severus prompted.

"Using the life element calls to the spirit in everything and renews it," Hermione said. "The elements are more than willing to come to my call."

"If void and life are polar opposites and incompatible," Severus said, his eyes holding hers. "Then why does Harry wear both?"

Hermione's eyes met Severus'.

"You're sharp, to have noticed that," she said.

He quirked a brow. "Sharp enough to know you're avoiding the question."

Hermione looked at Severus for a long moment, holding his gaze.

"Harry has undergone a trauma," Hermione said. "We suspect it left something behind that calls him to the void. Once the remnant left in him is gone, we suspect that Harry will use a ring of life."

"'We'?" Severus questioned.

"Me, Harry, and Ron," Hermione told him. "We're the ones running the Young Adventurer's Club."

"I noticed," Severus said, non-committal. "Though, I'll admit that I didn't realize Ron was that high up in the chain of command..."

"Ron's our strategist," Hermione said. "He'll be more useful later, when all the action starts. I'm the researcher – I'm the one who's most useful now."

Severus had surmised as much. Talking about Ron wasn't interesting to him.

"Harry had a trauma?" he said instead.

Hermione looked grim.

"He survived the Killing Curse."

Severus gave her a slow, measuring look.

"You're not talking about your experimental method of surviving Avada Kedavra, are you?"

"No. It was old, powerful magic, borderline dark. A life to save a life." Hermione looked unsettled. "Not easily replicated. Certainly not duplicable."

"Not without a willing loss of life." Severus considered her words. "Is that what you're researching?" he asked. "A way to fix Harry from his trauma?"

She looked at him sideways. "In a way."

"Would you like assistance?"

Now, Hermione looked surprised.

"You're offering to help me?" she asked. "You would do that?"

"I wouldn't have suggested it if I didn't mean it," Severus said, a small smile playing around his lips.

"It'd be a lot of work," Hermione said slowly. "You'd miss most of your Chinese magic lessons."

Severus snorted.

"Learn magic from teachers that I could easily get from a book, or help solve an esoteric magical puzzle," he said, his eyes glinting. "I wonder which one I would choose."

To his surprise and delight, Hermione laughed, musical peals of laughter that rang around the garden, and Severus felt himself smile slowly in response, somehow proud that he had made her laugh.

"You've done a bit of growing up here, haven't you?" she mused, her eyes dancing. "You're not just a school boy anymore."

Severus raised an eyebrow. "Would you prefer it if I were?"

The thorough, calculating, look she gave him sent shivers of desire through his body, and his heart caught in his throat as her eyes lingered on his lips and chest.

"I daresay I like you this way better," she told him. "_Much_ better. Let's get started."

Severus and Hermione quickly fell into a routine. In the mornings, after breakfast, Hermione would cast complicated translation spells on whatever they were to work on for the day and tell him what to look for. They would spend the morning reading, pouring over ancient documents and tomes. There would be a break for lunch, and afterward, they would discuss their findings, often arguing about what their discoveries meant.

Severus found the entire process fascinating, and Hermione's spirited company highly enjoyable as well.

It became apparent that Hermione was looking for anything and everything to do with souls in the documents they had found. Any mention of soul, soul sickness, or soul shards was carefully analyzed and dissected, with Hermione matching the new information up to her own system of information she had in her head. Often, she would shake her head in disappointment after pouring over the relevant passages, but occasionally a thoughtful look would come into her eye, and she would read over it, her lips wordlessly murmuring as she read, committed the necessary phrase or paragraph to memory.

Though he never asked, Severus wondered what about souls she was researching. Soul magic was dark and forbidden. All he knew, really, was that souls could be torn and scarred from casting dark magic, especially the Unforgivables, and that in particularly dark cases, could be riven in two. The fact that Hermione searched for it so hard convinced Severus that she must be searching for a way to heal souls, and Severus had a suspicious inkling as to why.

Though he was well-liked by everyone, Harry seemed to occasionally fall into dark moods. He would glower, glare, and snap at people. Though Ron and Hermione ignored his outbursts and treated him as they always did, his fellow squad leaders would simply avoid him and give him a wide berth. Harry's own squad members chalked it up to the stress of running the entire organization or being frustrated with some aspect of what he was doing for the emperor, but Severus couldn't help but wonder.

He'd never seen Harry cast magic using his ring, despite them being in China. He always had his wand, a firm determination to use it in his eyes. At times, he seemed feverish and disturbed, his eyes sharp and paranoid. Hermione would lead him away, quietly talking to him, resting a hand on his shoulder as they walked. It was rare to see Harry in such a way, but Severus could from the reactions of others that these episodes were nothing new, and Severus wondered how Harry's soul had been torn.

It had to be soul-sickness; Severus was convinced. The mental instability and mood swings were clear indicators – they had learned what to look for, in Slytherin house, to see if a classmate was losing their mind to the Dark. Severus suspected that they'd screened applicants for soul-sickness not only on the basis of finding good, moral people who'd never used the Dark Arts, but also not to exacerbate Harry's own condition – having two soul-sick people in close quarters could have bad outcomes.

In that, Severus was insatiably curious. Everything about Harry seemed to be hard, strong determination and selflessness. He cared for the others and listened to everyone, and he was a charismatic leader, one that they had all grown to admire and look up to. If there was a war, Severus was sure that Harry would be a hero, courageously leading his troops against the opposition into battle. Nothing about him seemed to indicate that he would ever use the Dark Arts or an Unforgivable. Nevertheless, something must have happened to scar his soul.

Severus suspected it must have happened when there was an attempt on his life. Hermione had mentioned the old, powerful magics that had saved his life, but she'd said nothing of what Harry had done afterward. After his foe had tried and failed to kill him, had Harry killed his opponent in a rage? Had part of the magic failed, and part of Harry's soul was hit and cut away? Severus was curious, but he did not raise the issue with Hermione, knowing she would only grow cold.

Hermione was incredible, in Severus' eyes. He had always thought so, and he had nearly idolized her when he first joined the Young Adventurer's Club. She had been his savior, delivering him from his coming choice of doom at Hogwarts, and his savior from his childhood bullies, who she made beg for redemption at his feet. She'd bantered with him about potions and his Blood-Replenishing Potions, revealing a brilliant, sharp mind and dazzling him with her knowledge, and then when she'd kissed him on the first night, her eyes glittering in the moon, she'd become a goddess in his eyes.

Severus had known his infatuation for what it was, and though he had tried to get closer to her, Severus didn't honestly think he'd ever have a chance with Hermione, despite what he'd told Tom. Hermione was too brilliant to associate with the likes of him, and much too busy to be distracted by mere members of her club.

Now, though – Hermione was beginning to see him as an equal, and Severus reveled in the attention. Though they argued and fought over their discoveries more often than not, he could tell that Hermione enjoyed it – that she hadn't had someone to have an equal battle of wits with in a long, long time. Her eyes lit with unexpected pleasure whenever he delivered a particularly cutting barb, and she retorted back viciously, giving just as good as she got.

Even if she gave him nothing else, Severus was surprised to realize he had made a friend. A real friend, who he could be himself around, as sarcastic and cutting as that was.

Despite their growing friendship, Severus was wary of asking too many questions. He knew that Hermione didn't want to discuss her work in-depth, and he still remembered her reaction the one time he'd asked about her timeline. When the topic was finally broached, it was Hermione that brought it up, one afternoon as they researched.

"It says here that the sacrificed child's soul escaped," Severus said, pointing to the relevant passage. "It went up to the sun, as part of the sacrifice."

Hermione ran a hand through her hair anxiously. "But even with the ritual ring they used? The one that made a child an avatar of evil?"

"The Incans made no effort to heal the child's soul before or after," Severus told her. Hermione groaned and flopped back into the couch.

"Damn," she said. "I had such high hopes for this scroll. It had enough wards on it to make me think it'd be something more."

She bit her lip, thinking deeply, and Severus read on. After several minutes, his eyes snagged on a particular phrase.

"Hermione," he said. "I think I've found something. A spell."

"What is it?" Hermione came over to look, bending over his shoulder from behind, and Severus was achingly aware of her breasts pressing against his back.

"This." Severus fought his dry mouth to indicate the relevant passage. "This spell looks like it will-"

"It'll heal someone's who's soul has been ripped," Hermione said. She sighed. "I already found this spell."

"You did?" Severus' tone betrayed his surprise. "When?"

"When I found the Incan disarming spell," Hermione said. "I told you – there were two good finds. The Disarming spell, and this one."

Severus wracked his mind. "The one that would seriously drain you? That you said you'd have to try in combat?"

"That's the one."

"Hermione," Severus said, his voice careful. "Why would you need to do it in combat?"

Hermione gave him a quizzical look.

"There's no one here with a torn soul," she told him. "We screened for soul-sickness."

"I know that," Severus said patiently. "But isn't there someone else? Someone that wasn't screened?"

Understanding dawned on Hermione's face.

"Harry's soul has not been torn," Hermione said firmly. "He wouldn't be affected by the spell. That's why I need to try it in combat – we'll be coming up against some people who I've known have torn their souls."

"As you say."

"Harry is _not_ soul sick," Hermione said. "Severus, listen to me. _Severus._"

She came around and sat down next to Severus. She took his hands in hers, looking into his eyes.

"Severus, Harry is not soul-sick. He may have some symptoms of soul-sickness, but he has never torn or riven his soul."

"Why does he exhibit symptoms, then?"

"He has the same symptoms of bipolar disorder as well," Hermione shot back.

"Does Harry _have_ bipolar disorder?"

"_No._ But he also doesn't have soul-sickness."

Severus gave her a look, and Hermione sighed.

"Severus. Soul-sickness manifests in a very different manner than the mood swings Harry undergoes," she told him. "Have you ever seen someone who's soul-riven?"

Severus regarded her for a long moment. "No."

"Then let me show you."

"How?" Severus scoffed. "We don't have anyone who's soul-sick here."

"No," Hermione said. "But I've seen people who were soul-sick. Fought them. Let me show you."

Her eyes met his again, and this time, Severus knew it was deliberate.

"...are you sure?" he asked quietly. "Hermione, if I see something I'm not supposed to in there..."

Hermione winced.

"What you'll see is a secret that would have come out soon enough, anyway," she admitted. "We're going to battle some of these people at the end of the month."

She shifted on the couch, putting her back against the armrest. Severus' eyes met hers steadily.

"Ready?"

She bit her lip. "As I'll ever be."

Severus nodded and withdrew his wand. "_Legilimens."_

There was a falling sensation, and suddenly he was in her mind.

He was _in_ her mind, not just getting glimpses of different memories as he did with most people. It was as if he'd fallen into a Pensieve, watching a memory play out. He looked around, trying to get his bearings. He was in a darkened hallway, surrounded by marble, and Severus was reminded of the Ministry of Magic.

There was an echoing scream, and Severus whirled around.

Hermione was running down the hallway, terrified. She was younger, Severus could tell, and her classmates were spilling into the hallway as well – Severus thought he could make out Harry and Neville. Hermione ran right through Severus, as if he were a ghost, and a moment later, a dark-haired, wild-looking woman ran through him as well, hurling spells at Hermione.

"Little Mudblood! Come out and play~!"

The woman hurled another dark hex at her, which Hermione dodged, and as Severus ran to keep up, Severus was astonished to realize he recognized the dark witch.

_Bellatrix..._

The resemblance was undeniable. Bellatrix Black's black curls were the same, as were her too-big, dark eyes. Her hair had gone wild, as had her eyes, but there was no mistaking her sharp features and her crooked wand.

Severus watched as Bellatrix hurled curse after curse, Hermione dodging and counter-casting as fast as she could. There was a loud crash from a nearby room, and Bellatrix turned and ran. Another man ran past her, hurling a curse at Hermione, who cried out as she was hit.

Abruptly, Severus was thrown from the memory back into himself, and both he and Hermione were panting.

"I didn't realize it'd be like reliving it," Hermione said, her eyes slightly wild. "Sorry. But yeah – that's what a soul-sick person-"

"You were hit." Severus didn't realize he had growled until he heard himself. "Where?"

Hermione looked at him, her breathing still erratic.

"It was years ago," Hermione said. "It's fine, Severus-"

"_Where?_"

He was leaning over her now, his eyes boring into hers. He was aware of Hermione's body, her pulse fluttering in her neck, an after effect of the adrenaline they both felt. Her eyes met his, and her breathing shifted.

Wordlessly, she pushed her robes open and tugged down the neckline of her blouse.

"Here."

She stopped just above the tops of her breasts. There was a star-like scar on her breastbone, a bolt branching out like a tree. Severus raised a hand to her, tracing her scar with her fingertips.

"Do you want it?"

"I've always hated it," Hermione admitted. "But Madame Pomfrey said..."

Severus hushed her, laying a finger on her lips. Hermione's eyes dilated further still, and Severus felt himself drawn to her lips. It was a struggle to move his fingers from her mouth back down to her chest, but he managed it, spreading his palm over the entirety of her scar.

"_Quányù liáoshāng," _he breathed. _"Fùyuánchōu yù."_

A painful tingling rushed through his arm and out into Hermione, who gasped, but Severus held on, gritting his teeth. The resistance lessened a moment later, and both Severus and Hermione watched as her skin healed and closed up, new skin smoothing over the place where she had been cursed.

He stopped, panting, and his eyes met Hermione's.

Hermione's eyes were a warm brown, but Severus had never noticed the little flecks of amber in them or the small ring of honey brown surrounding her pupil. Her eyes were like gems, sparkling with light and subtle shifts in color, and Severus wondered what kind of element they would call to, if used with a ring – there didn't seem to be any element pure enough to be channeled through such beauty.

Her pupils dilated, and Severus realized his hand was still on her breast. He snatched it back, feeling his face heat.

"My apologies," he muttered. "I had-"

"Don't." Hermione said firmly. She took his hand in hers, holding it. "Severus..."

He looked at her, his breath catching. Her eyes were endless, like scrying pools.

"How did you do that?" Hermione asked. "I've never read of such a spell..."

"I made it up," Severus told her. "Words for healing. I harmonized your scar with my undamaged skin, and the rest..."

He trailed off, throat dry, and Hermione shook her head, her eyes never leaving his.

"You could have used some of your life force to heal me, if you weren't careful," she said. "You could have burned out your core."

"I was fairly certain it would work," Severus countered, though he felt breathless. "I have enough experience at this point to stop mid-spell if the forces aren't harmonizing properly."

"It was dangerous."

"It was worth it," Severus told her fiercely. "Hermione, even if it drained some of my life force, it would have been what, seconds? Minutes? Next to your pain, that is nothing. I would give much more to have you whole."

Hermione shook her head, not looking at him.

"You shouldn't. Not you," she said. "Your life should be your own. Don't waste your life on superficial scars on me-"

"My life _is _my own," Severus told her. He caught her chin in his hand, and moved her face up to meet his. "If I want to spend parts of it to make you happy, it is _my_ choice, Hermione."

Her eyes widened, her mouth opening in a small, wordless _oh. _Severus stroked her cheek, mesmerized by her eyes, and her lips fluttered.

"Hermione! The alchemist says there's no fluxweed!"

Harry came through the door, looking at a piece of parchment, and Severus and Hermione quickly tore themselves apart.

"There's not?" Hermione said, standing up, her mind sharp again once more. "Harry, they _must_ have some. Don't they trade with the Mongolians to the north?"

"They do, but the Mongol government has been threatening trying to breach the wall. It's putting pressure on all the traders..."

Severus let their words run through his ears unheard as he sat back, trying to regain his composure. Hermione seemed to have rapidly regained her own – there was only a slight pink tone on her face and the rumbled robes around her neck to indicate anything of what they had done, and she was now arguing with Harry about the necessity of the fluxweed.

If Harry hadn't interrupted them, Severus would have kissed her, and he wasn't sure he'd have been able to stop.

He sighed.

"Can I assume that the fluxweed is needed to brew Wolfsbane?" he asked aloud, and both Harry and Hermione turned to him. "To prevent an unseemly accident with our friend Lupin when the moon rises tomorrow?"

Harry gave him a surprised look. "Wolfsbane wasn't invented in your time," he said.

"It was published in the last _Potions Quarterly _before you recruited me."

Harry looked impressed. He turned to Hermione, who looked measuring.

"Is it for Wolfsbane?" Severus repeated.

"And if it was?" she challenged.

"Well, then." He smirked. "I just might be able to help."


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12**

"The main property of fluxweed," Severus said, stirring the potion, "is it changes form depending on the moonlight."

"Of course," Hermione said, frowning. "That's why it's used as a base for potions like Polyjuice. It helps the user change form."

"Yes," Severus said, adding some diced beetles to the cauldron. "But that's _not_ what it's used for in the Wolfsbane. Kelpie hair is used for that."

Harry looked thoroughly befuddled.

"Isn't it better to just follow the directions?" he ventured. "I mean, potion-making is hard enough as it is."

"Potion-making is entirely about the reagents and reactions between different ingredients and their magical potential," Severus told him. "Did your potions professor teach you that?"

"Nope." Harry grinned. "He was a bit busy with other things, I reckon, to actually concentrate on teaching us. So what's that mean for the fluxweed?"

"It means that the fluxweed is not the critical ingredient of the potion," Severus told him. "It is used only because of its prolific presence in Scotland, where the potion was created. Any other moonlight-sensitive swamp-plant will do. Such as-"

"Severus? I got the carabs."

"Perfect timing," Severus told Neville, shooting him a grateful look. "Put it on the counter right there, would you?"

Neville did so, watching what Severus was doing.

"What's it for?" Neville asked, curious.

"An adaptation of the Wolfsbane potion," Severus told him.

"Oh, for Lupin?"

Severus stopped what he was doing and turned to stare at Neville, who flushed. Severus turned and raised an eyebrow, giving both Harry and Hermione a skeptical look.

"Does everyone here know everything?" he asked. "I was under the impression that Lupin's condition was a well-kept secret."

"Maybe at Hogwarts in _your _timeline," Hermione said, tossing her hair.

"Yeah," Harry said, grinning. "_Someone_ in our timeline let it slip to everyone in our class."

Severus ignored his vague allusions to the future, knowing it would be pointless to ask. Instead, he took the carab leaves, cut them into quarters, and added them to the potion, which turned a milky white and started to smoke.

"There," Severus said, proud. "One cauldron full of Wolfsbane potion, ready and waiting."

Hermione examined the potion, skeptical, before relaxing.

"It's identical," she admitted. "Well done."

"Someone should give some to Lupin as soon as possible," Severus said. "It's most effective when taken repeatedly over a period of forty-eight hours."

"I'll handle it," Harry said, scooping up a goblet full of the potion. "You'll take care of Lupin tomorrow night, right, Hermione?"

"Right," Hermione confirmed. "Thanks, Neville."

She smiled at him, and Neville blushed.

"I-it was no problem," Neville said, embarrassed. "Anytime. I'll just go back to dinner now."

He hurried off, tips of his ears red, and Hermione turned to Severus.

"You just saved me from an awful lot of hassle, transporting all the way home to get some reliable fluxweed," she said, smiling at him. "I really appreciate the favor."

"It was nothing," Severus told her, and her smile grew.

"Yes, but still." She tilted her head. "Is there anything you would like in return?"

An image of her with him tangled in sheets and nothing else flashed through his mind, and he coughed.

"Anything?" she said again.

Severus wondered if she put that infliction in her voice just to torture him.

"If you're going with Lupin tonight," he said, making sure to keep his voice normal, "I'd like to come along with you. I've never seen a werewolf on Wolfsbane before. And it... I'd appreciate the opportunity to observe him in a passive state."

Hermione's eyes lit with understanding. "Of course."

"Wait. How do you..." Severus sighed and pinched his eyebrows. "Is there nothing embarrassing from my past that you don't know?"

"Oh, come now," Hermione teased. "You can't object to that. After all, _you _were the one who told me about Sirius' cruel trick to make you meet Lupin in the Shrieking Shack."

Astonishment dawned on Severus' face. "_I_ told you...?"

"Along with Harry and Ron," Hermione confirmed. "But _yes_, you can come with me and Lupin at moon rise."

"Thank you," Severus said, his mind still wrapping itself around the fact that in Hermione's timeline, he apparently knew Hermione well enough to tell her stories from his childhood.

Hermione beamed at him. "You're welcome. Let's go to dinner now, shall we?"

They headed off down the hallway together.

"Though..." Severus drawled, and Hermione turned to look at him.

"Whatever embarrassing stories my future self might have told you is offset by the fact I do not have the memories of myself in your timeline," Severus told her. "It's only fair you tell me an embarrassing childhood story in exchange."

Hermione laughed.

"Draco cursed me once in fourth year," she said, her tone impish. "Made my front two teeth grow right down my robes to my navel. I was horrified, but the professor who witnessed the fight said he saw no difference."

Severus resisted the urge to goggle at her. "That's just _cruel_."

"It was," Hermione told him. "I ran off in tears to the Hospital Wing, where Madame Pomfrey managed to fix everything and help me pull myself together."

"Still, for a teacher to be that cold..." Severus couldn't wrap his mind around it. "If that happened now, I would punch your teacher in the face for that, detention be damned."

Hermione laughed.

"I'm sure you would, Severus," she said, her eyes dancing at him. "I'm sure you would."

"It'll be okay, Remus," Hermione reassured him again. "You'll be able to completely keep your mind."

Lupin still looked terrified.

"Are you _sure_, Hermione?" His voice cracked. "If I don't-"

"If you don't and anything goes wrong, Severus and I both have Animagus forms," she assured him. "We'll transform, and then comfort you that way, all right?"

"It'll work, Lupin," Severus said, giving him a sharp look. "Do you honestly think _I_ would be here if there were any doubt?"

Lupin hesitated. "...No."

"Well, then," Severus said, spreading out his arms. "Feel free to relax."

Lupin moved to sit down by the fire, and Severus raised an eyebrow at Hermione, who looked like she wanted to laugh.

"Thanks," she said, her eyes dancing.

They all sat there for a long time, watching the fire and waiting for the moon to come up. The valley was stunning against the sunset, and still remarkably warm, despite the sinking sun. The rays caught Hermione's face, illuminating it, and Severus found it hard to drag his eyes away.

Hermione's own eyes caught his.

"You look pensive," she said, smiling.

"I was wondering what your Animagus form was," Severus told her. "You didn't participate in the Circling of Creatures, so it's either a magical creature or one that can't function well on land."

Hermione laughed. "Or it was more important for me to get the information I needed."

"Or that," Severus conceded.

Hermione's smile was teasing. "Well?"

"Well what?"

"Are you going to try and figure it out?"

Severus knew a challenge when he heard one. "Perhaps. What's in it for me if I do?"

Hermione's eyes darkened, and Severus felt his breath catch.

"I'll teach you how to change your own Animagus form."

"_What?_" Severus was hard pressed not to sputter. Instead, he stared at her for a long moment, astonished. "I didn't know that was possible."

"I'd wager there's a lot you don't know is possible," Hermione said, reclining to lean back on a cushion she'd brought along. "Going to guess?"

Severus considered for a long moment. "Phoenix."

Hermione laughed. "That's Harry."

"Mermaid?" Severus guessed again. "Otter?"

"Dolphin?" Lupin ventured. Severus turned to look at Lupin, who flushed.

"No, no, and no," Hermione said, a smile playing around her lips.

"Unicorn," Severus said.

"I'm not pure enough to be a unicorn," Hermione laughed. "Guess again."

"Give us a hint," Lupin suggested. "Are you a magical creature or a sea-based one?"

"Magical."

"Fwooper?" Severus guessed. "Knoll?"

"No and no. You guess a lot of birds, Severus," Hermione teased. "Does that mean you think I'm flighty?"

"You seem the type to refuse to be confined to land," he told her, a small smirk on his lips. "_Are_ you a bird?"

Hermione's eyes danced. "No."

"Something dangerous?" Lupin asked. "A lethifold? A quintaped?"

"No and no."

"But are you something dangerous?" Severus asked.

Hermione paused. "Anything can be dangerous," she said lightly.

"Have the others seen you transform?" Lupin asked.

Hermione smirked. "Some of them."

"_Some_ of them?" Severus challenged. "Have you transformed in front of all of them?"

"Yes."

"And only _some_ of them saw you?"

"Yes."

Severus and Lupin exchanged a look.

"Are the others just blind and dumb?" Lupin ventured, and Hermione laughed.

"Maybe," she conceded. "But that's not why only some of them saw."

"I have no idea," Severus conceded. "I dropped Care of Magical Creatures in third year."

"Me neither," Lupin said. "Can you really change a person's Animagus form, Hermione?"

"Some of them," Hermione said. "Depends on the person. I'd be able to teach Severus, I'm sure, but probably not you."

"I can't be an Animagus anyway," Lupin said, frowning at the fire. "Werewolves can't."

Hermione raised an eyebrow. "Are you sure?" she asked. "I bet if you tried to transform into a wolf not at the full moon, you'd be able to."

Lupin snorted. "Why would I _want_ to transform?"

"It wouldn't be like the Were transformation," she told him. "It'd be a choice."

Lupin lapsed into silence, and Severus wondered if he was considering trying it at some point.

Severus turned to Hermione, who was looking at him. "How do I become another animal?"

"It'll have to be a magical animal," Hermione said, smiling. "No one gets to pick their first animal form, but you can control the second one. We'll need to find an animal, first."

"What was your first form?" Severus asked, and Hermione laughed.

"A raven," she told him. "You were right – it was a bird."

Severus smirked. "I thought as much."

"We'll need to find a magical animal for you that you want to transform into," Hermione told him. "Any particular ideas?"

Severus considered.

"I'd like to be something big and impressive," he admitted. "Tom transforms into a panther, which seems infinitely more useful than a bat."

"Bats have wings and can see in the dark," Hermione said. "A panther's bound to the ground."

Severus felt a flush of gratitude at her words.

"Could I be a chimera?" he asked. "Would that one work?"

Hermione laughed.

"Yes, in theory," she said. "Though it'd be hard. You have to get the animal you pick to work with you. Deadly creatures tend to be much harder to subjugate."

Severus kept thinking, his mind slowly going over all the magical creatures he knew about.

"An Abraxan," he said finally. "That's what I'd really like to be."

Hermione looked surprised. "Why?"

"I don't want to give up my wings. I'd like to be able to fly, still, but being a winged horse would be more useful. They're incredibly strong as well."

Hermione smiled. "All right."

She stood up, brushed off her robes, and went over to Lupin.

"The moon is rising," she told him. "Are you ready?"

Lupin looked ill. "As much as I'll ever be."

Severus watched as the moon rose above the horizon, illuminating the valley in pale light, and Lupin let out a howl.

There was a sickening crunching noise, and Severus realized that Lupin's bones were splitting and reforming in front of him, making him huge and gaunt. Thick, spiky hair pushed through his skin, and his jaw widened and grew. His eyes changed from brown to yellow and grew more round. He growled, whimpered, and howled as the transformation took place. Severus couldn't tear his eyes away, and Hermione was watching on with a grim sense of determination.

When it was finished, Lupin collapsed on the ground, panting, and Severus shot Hermione a look.

"He's okay," Hermione said, her eyes full of regret. "It's just incredibly painful for him."

Lupin staggered to his feet, but when he was Hermione and Severus still standing there, his eyes grew huge. He ran about in front of them, yipping excitedly, and sat down wagging his tail as if he was a giant dog.

"Yes, I can see you know who you are," Hermione told him, laughing and patting his head. "Didn't Severus tell you?"

Lupin yipped and ran to sit in front of Severus, who folded his arms and smirked.

"I told you it would work," he said. "I wasn't the one who had doubts."

Lupin wagged his tail and laid on the ground in front of him, in an awkward sort of bow, before running off to chase a moon moth he'd seen in the valley, and Hermione laughed.

"It's good that he's seems so relaxed now," Hermione said, watching after him. "I was worried he'd be so injured from the transformation that he'd just curl up and sleep."

"The carab leaves might have something to do with that," Severus told her. "They have pain-suppressing qualities as well."

Hermione smiled at him, and Severus smiled back.

"The Abraxan," Hermione said suddenly. "I almost forgot. I'll be right back."

She disappeared with a small _pop _and a rush of wind, and before the wind had settled, there was a loud _POP_ across the valley, and Severus turned to look.

Hermione had returned. She was leading a large black horse towards him with magnificent feathered wings, and Severus felt his breath catch as they drew close.

"He's magnificent," he told her, cautiously reaching up to pet him. "He's for me?"

"So long as you're sure you want to become an Abraxan," Hermione said with a smile. "You ready?"

"What do I have to do?"

"It's easier than you'd think," she told him. "You need to cast Legilimens and fully immerse yourself into the Abraxan's mind. Once you've fully explored every part of its mind, all its subconscious and instincts, try to pull yourself back to your body and transform at the same time."

"Cast Legilimens on an animal?" Severus asked, frowning. "Are you sure? I've read that that can have disastrous results."

"Only on non-magical animals. A magical animal will accept your mind into its."

Severus considered this. He'd read only dire warnings against trying to read the mind of an animal, enough to convince him doing so was a staggeringly bad idea. He had never read anything about reading a magical animal's mind, though. And Hermione had evidence to back up her claim – Severus had seen Draco turn into a dragon.

Severus glanced at Hermione, who gave him an encouraging nod, and Severus nodded, his mind made up. Squaring his shoulders and turning to face the Abraxan, Severus took a steadying breath and withdrew his wand.

"_Legilimens."_

There was a moment of fear, then confusion, then apathy, and Severus abruptly realized that he was already reacting to _himself_, how Abraxans reacted in general when spells were cast near them. There wasn't the usual sense of sinking into a set of memories – he was just suddenly a horse. His mind turned toward food, then, and whether or not the grass was long enough to eat, and Severus felt himself sinking deeper into the Abraxan's mind as he did, almost losing touch with himself.

He could feel his wings twitch in the air, constantly fluttering slightly to help him keep his balance. He could feel his powerful legs, too, muscles strong and long. He could feel a moth flying around his hindquarters, and he slapped at it with his tail, chuffing and snorting as if flew away. He could feel himself become the Abraxan, and Severus wondered how he'd ever been satisfied with being a man.

But wait. That didn't make sense, Severus thought, his own thoughts slow to come and form. He liked being a wizard – he could do ever so much more than he could as only a great winged horse.

Hermione's words echoed dimly in his mind, and slowly, Severus started to pull himself free. There was an awful sense of loss as he did so, a screaming denial that he should go back to being a human, and as he pulled away, he felt himself change.

There was a moment of panic as Severus felt himself still a horse. It felt exactly the same – he'd failed, he'd gotten stuck in the horse's mind – only he was still _looking_ at the horse, and Hermione was beaming at him.

"Well done, Severus!" she told him, obvious pride in her tone. "That was the smoothest transformation I've seen yet! Very well done!"

Astonished, Severus tried to transform back, and his limbs reshaped into human ones.

"I did it," he said, astonished. "I actually did it."

Hermione smiled at him. "I told you it wasn't hard."

Severus looked at her a long moment, before laughing and sweeping her up in her arms.

"Severus!"

He laughed, spinning her around, and after a moment, Hermione laughed as well, a sound of raw happiness and joy.

When he finally set her down, he was breathless.

"I hated that I was a bat," he told her. "I always resented what it seemed to say about myself. And now I can be this majestic creature – it's almost too much for me."

Hermione's smile was magic.

"No more big bat of the dungeons for you," she told him, reaching up to rustle his hair. "We make our own destinies, here."

"I don't even know what that means," Severus said, shaking his head with a smile. "But – thank you, Hermione. Thank you."

He spent the rest of the night flying around in big, swooping arcs and running around with Lupin in the valley, while Hermione watched on, an indulgent smile on her lips as she read from a book. By the time dawn finally came, both Severus and Lupin were exhausted, and they both collapsed at Hermione's feet in human form, asleep before they hit the ground.


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13**

As the end of the two months approached, there was an undercurrent of excitement among the members. There was somewhere new to go and explore, and to Severus, everyone seemed desperately excited for a chance to use their newfound magic.

"I bet we go to Atlantis," Regulus declared. "We discover the lost magics they used to make the island float, and we fight off the invaders that sunk it."

"Atlantis isn't real," Minerva said, rolling her eyes. "I think we'll probably go to the Library of Alexandria. There'd be so much knowledge there."

"What do _you_ think, Severus?" Tom's eyes glinted at him, and Severus repressed the urge to feel uneasy. "After all, you're the one who's been helping our vaulted leader so much recently. Hmm?"

Severus kept his face still and refused to react. He had lied and told the others he was helping Harry and Hermione only with potions whenever he disappeared. It was a well-calculated lie – he knew Tom would be jealous and angry if he knew he was mostly spending all the time with Hermione, and it was much better for him to just envy him getting preferential treatment.

"I think we're going to fight," Severus told them. "They slipped and mentioned something about a battle at the end of the month..."

Everyone's eyes widened.

"A _battle?_" Regulus breathed. "Not just a duel, but a _battle_?"

"That makes sense," Minerva said. "The biggest danger in a battle is getting disarmed. If we're disarmed _now_, though, we're not helpless – we all have our magical rings to fall back on."

"I wonder if they'll train us a bit more." Neville's voice was nervous. "I'm a bit crap at dueling."

"Who will we be fighting?" Tom asked, looking at Severus. "Who is our opponent?"

Severus thought of Bellatrix Black hurling hexes at Hermione, and his blood went cold.

"I'm... not sure."

"Figures," Tom snorted, turning back to his food.

The others continued their conversation, speculating about what spells they'd be best equipped to use. Neville turned to Severus, his voice quiet.

"I just hope there's a particular person there," he confided. "There's someone I want to kill."

The vehemence in his voice surprised Severus, and Severus wondered who was so terrible mild-mannered Neville wanted to kill.

"I don't think we'll be killing anyone," Severus told him. "The last thing Harry needs is for one of us to get soul-riven now."

Neville looked surprised, followed by a sulky reluctance. "I suppose you're right."

Severus looked up. At the head of the table, the leaders conversed with hushed voices, all of them looking tense. Whatever was coming, it'd be coming soon, he wagered – the second month was almost out.

"Today," Harry said grimly. "We will be practicing battle magic. Wands out, please."

Severus withdrew his wand. Several of his fellow members muttered as they searched for their own wands in their pockets – it'd been so long since they'd used wands instead of rings, after all.

"Here are the rules," Harry announced. "This forest," he gestured to the giant forest behind him, "is our battle ground. Your goal is to find and remove all the squad leaders-" he gestured to them all, "from the battle however possible. No Dark Magic, no Unforgivables, and no physical violence.

"This will be mimicry of a battle we will face in three days. This is the best way to prepare you, we think. There's no substitute for real experience on the battlefield, and this will get you some.

"Make no mistake – the battle we will face in three days will be real," Harry told them, his eyes fierce. "Our enemy then will not hesitate to maim and kill us all. Our main advantage will be our stealth – they do not know we are coming – and after that, our Chinese magic ability and shield-penetrating disarming spell. Don't use Chinese magic unless you are disarmed – the enemy will sense it, they'll immediately be able to pinpoint where you are. So hold back on Chinese magic today – we want this to be as realistic as possible.

"We will be wearing black robes and masks," Harry said, and Ginny walked among the leaders, handing out hooded robe sets. "You may wear anything different that you like. We will go into the forest, and you all are to follow in one half-hour. Any questions?"

The members looked from one to another doubtfully. Sure, their leaders were powerful, but they were outnumbered five to one.

"Good," Harry said. "We begin."

Abruptly, all the squad leaders Disapparated, and the clearing was silent.

"They must have Apparated into the forest," Regulus said. "Good way to not leave tracks."

"We need some sort of strategy," Tom decided. "Some group-wide way of winning this thing."

The other squads drifted closer as Tom outlined the strategy they would use. Severus felt himself settle into battle mode as they all discussed strategy, a low flow of adrenaline making him more alert. The different groups argued, and it was clear not everyone thought Tom's strategy was good. Eventually, Omega managed to team up with Zeta, Gamma, and Epsilon, while the other squads were determined to try their luck alone.

"Any questions?" Tom asked when he was through briefing his new team. "Everyone got it? Good."

"We've got five more minutes," Minerva said, checking her Muggle watch.

The seconds ticked by agonizingly, one by one.

"Now," Tom said, his wand out ahead of him. "Let's go."

The forest was dimly lit for the middle of the day. The trees towered over them, casting shade everywhere, and more than once Severus wondered if he would be offed by tripping over a tree root instead of by a spell.

"Quietly, now," Tom murmured. "Don't let them catch you off-guard."

They had divided into groups of four, allowing each group to cover each directional side, and they had all gone into the circular forest from a different side. Neville had gone with some of his friends from the Zeta group, and Severus had drawn the straw to face south as they walked toward the north. They had all transfigured their clothes into robes with a camouflage pattern, and at Regulus' insistence, made caps of leaves and vines to wear on their heads.

"I don't see anything," Regulus said, his voice hushed. "Maybe they're invisible."

"People can't turn invisible," Minerva reminded him. "Just Disillusioned."

"Sshh," Severus chided, his voice low. "Don't let them hear you. That's an amateur's mistake."

They quietly crept through the trees, eyes scanning, constantly alert. Severus was careful to keep his steps silent, avoiding any leaves or roots.

"There." His voice was a whisper. "To the east. I see something."

"Let's investigate."

Tom led them over to a large tree that had a leg sticking out from behind it. As they rounded the tree, he frowned.

"Neville?"

Neville's eyes were shut, his wand gone. His pose was a bracing pose, defensive, and Severus felt uneasy seeing him seemingly petrified.

"He's been Stunned," Tom said, casting a diagnostic charm. "It's against the rules to wake him up."

"Where's the rest of his team?" Minerva whispered. "Would they really just leave him lying here?"

"He's of no use unconscious," Regulus pointed out. "Why not?"

Minerva shot Regulus a scathing look, but Tom interrupted them. "Over here."

The rest of his group wasn't far, all three Stunned and on the ground in a triangle, all of their hands out, but wands gone.

"Seamus Finnegan and Dean Thomas," Minerva said, rolling them over. "I think this one's called Michael Corner."

"How'd they get ambushed, if they had their backs to each other?" Regulus wanted to know.

"Must have had a weak link," Tom said, unfazed. "Probably Michael."

They continued to creep through the forest, but they all seemed somewhat unnerved. For Severus, it was disturbing to see his friends lying there like that, rendered helpless, even if he knew they were only stunned. It was all too easy to envision them as dead, and he knew that had the exercise been a real battle, they might have been killed.

"There!"

Minerva pointed, and they all looked.

"...Minerva," Tom said slowly. "I think that's a cat."

Minerva flushed.

"Well, it was black, and it moved," she said hotly. "Besides, it could be one of them as an Animagus."

"I think that'd be cheating," Severus said. "Besides, none of the leaders turn into a cat."

"Oh? How do you know that?" Minerva said, whirling around on him. "Do you know what all of them change into?"

"No, but I know enough," Severus told her. "And the ones I don't know are all magical creatures, which excludes them from being a cat."

"Maybe it's a magic cat," Regulus butted in. "They have those, don't they?"

"Are we really arguing about a blasted cat?" Tom's voice was annoyed. "Unless it has big black robes and a mask, I'm not interested."

"But look-! It has markings on its face – that could be from a mask-"

Regulus, Tom, and Minerva continued to argue, while Severus looked around, decidedly unnerved. It would be all too easy for someone to sneak up on them now, when they were distracted from arguing. It was easy for the leaders to sneak up on them even when they _weren't_, Severus thought, remembering the triangle of his peers all knocked out. They'd been alert, it seemed, and they still got a nasty surprise in the end.

How had someone managed to sneak up on them? Even Disillusionment left a telltale trickle of movement, and as paranoid as they all were, they would be sure to notice that. They had been covering every possible angle with their field of vision, so how had they-

An idea occurred to Severus, and with a feeling of dread, he looked up.

There was a person perched in the branches, their black cloak and white skull mask blending in with the dark leaves. His eyes met the person's in the mask, and the person began to fall.

"Look out-!"

Severus tried to cast the Disarming charm at the figure, but the figure had leapt into their middle by the time Severus fired off the spell, and it discharged harmlessly on the tree above. The figure was spinning in their midst, firing off spell after spell, and they shrieked as they scattered.

Severus ran for a tree, ducking around it for cover. He heard Minerva scream, followed by a _thump_ as she fell, and there were two more _thump_s in quick succession after. Severus remained crouched behind the tree, panting, his heartbeat thundering in his ears. After a long few minutes, he inched his face around the trunk of the tree to peek.

There was no one there.

Ever paranoid, Severus quietly stepped out from his hiding place to walk to his fallen comrades when a spell hit him hard in the back, sending him sprawling out towards them. He felt his head hit the ground hard, and then there was only black.


	14. Chapter 14

**Chapter 14**

Severus awoke to see Hermione crouched over him, an impish smile on her face.

"Awake, now?" she questioned. "Good."

She moved on, and Severus sat up and put a hand to his head, which was throbbing angrily.

"Urggh."

Severus turned to see Tom sit up, clutching his own head.

"I take it we failed miserably?" Tom asked.

"Unless one of the other groups did well enough to make up for everyone else," Severus told him. "But it looks like everyone's been stunned."

His head was clearing some, and he could see around the clearing now. All over, squad leaders were reviving their squads, members sitting up with groans.

"Do we have everyone?" Harry asked. "Good."

Ron and Blaise moved a big, black frame into position in the clearing. They set up a giant white screen, and Severus' heart sank.

"We're all going to watch what everyone did, right and wrong," Harry said, his voice carrying over the group. "We'll go backwards, starting with the 4-man squads Omega, Zeta, Epsilon, and Gamma made."

Tom groaned from next to him, and Severus fought the urge to hide his head.

A light flickered, and suddenly they were watching Neville and his squad on the screen, walking carefully through the forest. The camera shot was from above, and Severus realized it must be the memory of whoever had stunned them all.

Dean and Michael were arguing about where to go next – further into the forest, or around the edge. While they were arguing, a hand came up, stunning Neville as he turned to look at Dean. The others reacted to Neville's stunning with yells and panic, and they all glared around, back to back to back, their eyes searching for someone hidden around. The person up in the trees quietly crept from branch to branch until they were directly over their group, before dropping into the middle of the three and stunning them all rapidly from behind.

A groan came from the crowd, and Harry smirked.

"Give it up for Ginny, the wonderful squad leader responsible for this defeat," Harry said, and the clearing filled with reluctant clapping. Ginny swept them a curtsy and went back to her place, smirking.

Another squad filled the screen – it had Potter, Sirius, Rabastan, and Cormac. They were all yelling at each other, not lowering their voices at all. Potter and Sirius seemed to be yelling about Cormac stumbling over a log and startling a rabbit, while Cormac and Rabastan were yelling that it wasn't a big deal, and that all the yelling was going to give their position away.

"You've _got_ to be kidding me."

Severus heard Draco's disgusted voice from nowhere on the screen. A moment later, Draco walked over to group, not bothering to hide, and had stunned Potter and Sirius before Cormac and Rabastan could react. He got Cormac as he was running away, but Rabastan managed to Disarm Draco with the Incan curse. As Rabastan held out his hand to catch Draco's wand, Draco stunned him with a Chinese spell, and Rabastan fell down heavily, Draco's wand clattering to the ground.

The crowd clapped again, but the applause was more heartfelt this time. At least Rabastan had managed to disarm his pursuer.

The screen flickered, and Severus was dismayed to see himself on the screen, along with Tom, Minerva, and Regulus, all of them wearing their ridiculous hats.

Their pursuer watched them from the trees, moving around so as to keep them constantly in view. The screen paused as they found Neville and his squad, before scurrying over to directly over top, and Severus realized that although their pursuer could tell where they were, the silly hats of leaves prevented the leader from seeing which way they were all facing. Regulus nudged him and Tom, grinning widely, and Severus sighed, while Tom ignored him.

The leader moved around in a slow circle, establishing that they were all facing outward, before finally moving into position directly above them. He saw himself look up just as the leader dropped, calling out to the others as he tried a Disarming charm that careened past the leader, who was already moving to Disarm Minerva before landing.

Minerva dodged the first spell, but went down with a scream as a jelly-legs jinx hit, followed quickly by a Stupefy. A shield absorbed Regulus and Tom's repeated attempts at the Incan disarming charm, and they were both quickly neutralized as well.

"It's hard saying that word when adrenaline's pounding through you," Tom said defensively, and Severus didn't answer.

The figure wordlessly levitated back into the tree and crept over to where Severus was hiding. To Severus' benefit, though, the tree he'd chosen had a thick branch hanging out over top of him, shielding him from view, and it wasn't until he'd crept towards his companions that the figure cast and hit him, knocking him out with the rest.

"Give it up for Ginny once more," Harry announced, and there was scattered applause once more.

The two other groups that had taken Tom's suggestion were dispatched similarly, one by Luna, another by Blaise. There was scattered applause for each – it was clear from their disappointing performances that no one was happy about how things had gone down. Severus grimaced to himself, hoping that at least _someone_ had done well.

The screen changed again, and Draco's squad was advancing steadily into the forest in a line. The pursuer moved after them, and Avery whirled around with Abraxas, both casting spells that the pursuer just managed to dodge.

"Where'd he go?" Abraxas demanded.

"Dunno," Avery said, peering into the underbrush. "Listen."

They all held very still, and Severus realized they must have cast some sort of hearing-enhancing spell on themselves to hear so well. The pursuer held very still as well.

"This isn't working," Abraxas said finally. "Time for something different."

"Like what?" Avery asked.

"Like this. _Avis!_"

A dozen birds erupted from his wand, fluttering madly and chirping. They swooped down after the pursuer, who swore and blasted them out of the way.

"Over there!"

The five of them attacked the leader, all casting the Incan disarming spell. The leader dodged, rolling to the right, and fired off a stunner, which hit one of the brown-haired boys Severus didn't know.

"Damnit! Get him!"

The other four raced after the pursuer, who dodged and ducked behind a tree. As they rounded the tree, the pursuer took careful aim.

"_Confrigo!"_

The spell shattered the branches of the tree above them, sending all four scattering to escape the tree limbs. The pursuer knocked two of them out as they fled the damage, leaving just Avery and Abraxas left.

"You won't get us!" Abraxas shouted, firing off a normal Disarming charm, which the pursuer dodged.

"Don't antagonize him!" Avery said. _"Churasqayki!"_

The pursuer shielded and ducked simultaneously. Avery's spell deflected off into Abraxas, ripping his wand from him.

"What the hell, Avery?" Abraxas demanded, running over to him. "Give it back!"

"Here!"

The pursuer hit them both with a stunner as they made the exchange, and they both slumped to the floor. There was a groan from the crowd, followed by applause, and Severus joined in the clapping. Abraxas and Avery had put on an admirable show. Ron stepped forward, grinned, and swept them a bow, before stepping back into the line.

"Last one," Harry said. "Alpha and Beta group."

The screen flickered, and a new memory came up. The pursuer was watching a large group of ten slowly creep through the bushes. They were sub-divided into pairs, back-to-back, everyone's wands at the ready.

"That's standard Auror arrangement, isn't it?"

Harry's disembodied voice came over the projector, and Severus was surprised to hear Hermione's next.

"I wouldn't know," Hermione said, her voice low. "It does look similar to how we handled your birthday party, though."

"Right."

Harry and Hermione crept through the underbrush noiselessly, and Severus noted they both stuck to the shadows of trees, where their black robes blended in.

"Everyone stay alert," Kingsley instructed, looking around carefully with Tonks at his back. "Just a split-second of distraction will-"

Hermione fired at Kingsley from Harry's right, and Tonks was quick enough to shield them both, the spell shattering into sparks on his shield.

"What was that?" Tonks yelled.

"That was an attack," Kingsley said, his voice sharp. "Nice deflection, Tonks."

"That wasn't an attack," Lupin said. "That was a beam of light meant to make a pretty light show. That was a distraction."

They all grouped closer together, forming a circle.

"Wands at the ready," Kingsley whispered. "Any second now."

Harry edged along in the forest, moving so Kingsley was on his right. He glanced at his watch, counted, and leapt forward.

"_Churasqayki!"_

The spell hit one of the girls, and they all turned to cast at Harry, who shielded and dodged expertly, hitting another one with the same spell.

While Harry was dodging and shielding, Severus noticed two girls drop to the ground, followed by three boys. Emily Abbott was the sixth to fall and managed to cry out as she was hit, slumping to the ground.

"There's two of them!" Kingsley yelled. "Circle up!"

Across from Harry, another robed figure stepped out, who Severus knew to be Hermione. Her wand at the ready, she started rapidly firing off spells, and Harry did the same.

It was a fierce duel. Kingsley seemed the most skilled, and Harry engaged him, dueling one-on-one, both of them shielding and dodging hexes wildly. Across from Harry, though, Severus could see Hermione engaging the last three, among them Tonks and Lupin. Most of her spells were cast wordlessly, and her shield held against any of the curses the members flung at her. She only had to dodge against the Incan disarming charm, and even then, she just stepped neatly to one side, and Severus couldn't help but be impressed at her display of skill.

Hermione scored a hit on Tonks, who collapsed with a gasp, and Lupin was at her side in a moment.

"Tonks!"

In his moment of distraction, Hermione rapidly stunned Lupin, who toppled over next to Tonks, and quickly zapped the brunette girl as well, who'd turned away at Lupin's yell.

Kingsley hadn't turned at the shout, continuing to keep up with hurling curses at Harry. Harry was engaging him still, dodging and shielding, but Severus couldn't help but get the impression that Harry was toying with Kingsley, holding a large part of his skill back.

There was a loud _CRACK_, and Kingsley suddenly slumped over, unconscious. Harry slowly straightened and stepped out.

"That all of them?"

"Tonks still has her ring, but I hit her with Jelly-legs," Hermione said, stepping forward. "I doubt they learned a Chinese counter-curse to that."

"Right."

Harry was on Tonks in a moment, stunning her silently from behind. The curse deflected off, and Harry swore as he ducked.

"What the hell-?"

Hermione leapt forward, her wand slashing as she quickly hit all of the members with stunners once more. One of them slumped down, and only then did Hermione relax.

"She cast an illusion charm on Hugo to make him look like her," she said. "Then Metamorphasized into him."

"Nice," Harry said. "I need to figure out a way of doing that."

The screen flickered and stopped, and this time, there was wild applause for Kingsley and his group. They'd definitely done the best, though Severus privately felt they hadn't stood a chance against Harry and Hermione both.

"So," Harry said, as Ron and Blaise carried away the screen. "What did we learn today?"

There was a silence.

"Beware of threats from above?" Sirius said finally, and everyone laughed.

"Good," Harry said, smirking. "Anything else?"

"Try to blend in with your surroundings," Regulus offered.

"Don't argue with your teammates," Neville said.

The suggestions came quicker now.

"Be silent in the forest."

"Cast nonverbally whenever you can."

"Work with a partner to master tandem shielding and casting."

"Always be aware of what's going on."

"Move in three dimensions," Severus added. "A threat from above is sneakier than one from the ground."

Harry held up a hand to stop them, a small smile on his face.

"Overall, not bad for a first try, but not good enough," he told them frankly. "Take the rest of the day to practice dueling. Be sure to review Churasqayki – several of you had trouble with it in the critical moment. We'll come to get you for dinner."

Harry and the other leaders bowed and left them, and Severus turned to Tom with a groan.

"That was a spectacular failure," Severus said. "Shall we practice together?"

Tom nodded. There was a glint in his eyes.

"I'm not holding back next time," Tom said. "I'll hit them with every spell I can, even if it's just a hair away from dark magic."

Severus nodded. "I think they're expecting it," he told him. "They don't expect us to fight with standard dueling faire – they expect us to fight dirty."

"Makes sense," Tom said, shrugging. "The enemy certainly will."

They set about practicing dueling themselves, using every spell they could think of that might possibly give them an advantage the next time they found themselves in the forest, either against their leaders or their coming mysterious foe.


	15. Chapter 15

**Chapter 15**

"Here," Fred announced, passing out amulets. "We've enchanted these again."

"They're the ones we used in Egypt," George added. "With the Disillusionment and Night-Eye charm."

Severus took an amulet and looked up at Fred and George skeptically.

"You really think these will work?"

"Oi," Fred objected. "I'll have you know our charm work is second to none."

"Besides," George said. "All we had to do was refresh the charm, not integrate it."

"_I_ think it's an excellent idea," Rabastan said loudly, putting on his own amulet. "They won't be able to curse what they can't see."

Sighing, Severus put on his amulet and fingered his wand, anxious. Seven minutes to go.

"They'll activate in two minutes," George told them all. "So be sure you've linked up with your partner by then."

"Otherwise you might not be able to find each other," Fred said, grinning. "Everybody ready?"

Tom moved over to stand by Severus, exchanging a dubious glance with him.

"This seems like a bad idea," Tom muttered.

"Let them be foolish," Severus murmured back. "We try again tomorrow. When we fail today, everyone will be more apt to listen to my strategy tomorrow."

Tom gave him a considering look. "What's your strategy?"

Severus smirked. "Cheating."

The amulets activated, and suddenly the clearing was full of shimmering forms.

"Take your partner and go to your coordinates!" Fred yelled, unseen. "When the horn blares, go!"

Tom and Severus hurried to the east end of the forest. Fred and George had calculated out entry points for each pair 22 degrees away from each other, all the way around the circular forest. They'd marked out numbers on the grass ahead of time, and Tom and Severus quickly found their number.

"Ready?" Tom murmured.

Severus toyed with his wand. "As I'll ever be."

The klaxon blared, and Tom and Severus took off into the forest.

The forest was dark and shadowed again, but the Night-eye helped immensely – Severus could see around trees and shrubs with ease. Carefully making their way forward, Tom and Severus kept their eyes peeled for black cloaks and white masks.

"There!"

Tom fired off a curse, which was deflected with a quick shield.

"What the hell, man?!"

Severus recognized the voices and bit back a groan as James Potter and Sirius Black appeared, pulling their amulets off of their skin.

"What are you doing, firing at everything that moves?" Potter demanded. "We're the ones Disillusioned, not the squad leaders!"

"Sorry," Tom drawled. "I suppose I'm just on edge."

Black and Potter glowered at them a moment longer, before shuffling off, their amulets blurring them into a flickering nothingness once more.

"You couldn't have hit them with a worse spell?" Severus murmured.

Tom chuckled. "If he hadn't shielded, he'd be in tears."

"What was it?"

"A Bollocks-Basher Hex."

Severus and Tom smirked as they crept further into the forest.

Occasionally, they encountered other shimmering groups, and they steadied their wands, careful not to curse their teammates. Severus and Tom both kept a keen eye on the trees around them – they were determined not to be taken out the same way they had been last time.

A furious yell pierced the air from their left, and Tom and Severus sprinted toward it, ready to join the action.

"Who's there?"

Severus dodged a Disarming charm. "Regulus, it's us!"

A moment later, Regulus appeared, his amulet in his hand. Severus ripped off his own amulet, and Tom followed suit a moment later.

"What happened?" Severus said, walking over. There was a shimmering on the ground of someone. "Is this Minerva?"

"Someone got her!" Regulus said angrily. "I don't know who did it, but one of ours stunned her!"

"One of ours?" Tom repeated, as Severus knelt to take off her amulet. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, it was someone on our team!" Regulus looked furious. "We've run into tons of other pairs, but this time, one of them cast at her and then ran off! Who would do that?"

"When you say other pairs," Severus said slowly, a sinking feeling in his middle, "what exactly do you mean?"

"I mean the other shimmering groups," Regulus said. "I mean, everyone's Disillusioned, and we're all being quiet, so it's not like I could tell who was who..."

He broke off, seeing Tom fold his arms and Severus pinch the bridge of his nose, sighing.

"What?" Regulus demanded. "What?"

"The leaders," Severus said. "They would attack us. I'd bet they Disillusioned themselves as well, and they probably have a better way to ensure they don't attack each other than we do."

"I wonder how many pairs they've picked off," Tom said. "Even we didn't take a second look at a strange shimmer after the first encounter."

"Or," Severus suggested. "How many people lost their partners and are now stunning anything else that shimmers?"

There was a pause.

"Five galleons says we stun more of our own than the leaders do," Tom said.

"You're on," Severus said. "Did you see how fast Harry and Hermione were with their wands?

They continued arguing quietly, pocketing their amulets so as not to be Disillusioned anymore.

"Think we should camouflage ourselves again?" Regulus asked. "It kind of worked last time." But Severus shook his head.

"I think the leaders only Disillusioned themselves because we did," he said. "I think if they see us just walking around normally, they'll do the same."

"Makes sense," Tom said. "They only went in the trees last time because we weren't letting them approach on foot."

A shimmering came out of the woods, and they all raised their wands.

"Amulets off," Tom ordered. "Otherwise, you're about to be stunned."

The shimmering hesitated, and James Potter and Sirius Black came into view.

"Are you mad?" Potter demanded. "Didn't we already have this discussion?"

Severus groaned, and Tom explained about the squad leaders taking advantage and Disillusioning themselves as well. Sirius looked thoughtful.

"If they're already Disillusioned, they're probably not going to stop their own spell just because they see us walking around visibly," he said. "Our best bet is probably to put the amulets back on and go around as a group, stunning any shimmer we see."

"We'll end up stunning our teammates, though," Regulus objected.

"Better us than them," Tom pointed out. "I'm in."

They all agreed to the plan, and they all put their amulets back on.

Creeping through the forest was more fun when they didn't worry about who they were stunning – they quickly knocked out three pairs of people within ten minutes, none of them squad leaders. Sirius didn't care, though.

"When all the member shimmers are gone, there will only be leaders left," he said cheerily. "We'll get them all then."

They continued to creep through the forest. Part of Severus couldn't reconcile the fact that he was voluntarily cooperating with James Potter and Sirius Black – what was he _thinking_, working with such prats? But the rest of him seemed to view them with a casual annoyance. Sure, they were annoying, but it was better to work with them than against them, and he could always duck behind them if need be.

It startled Severus to realize that at some point, he'd lost most of his animosity for his childhood torturers. The thought baffled him. They'd made his life miserable and stolen his best friend from him, and at one point, if he thought he could have gotten away with it, he knew without a doubt that he'd have murdered every one of the Mauraders. But now...

Now, it didn't seem to be such a big deal. They were just a bunch of bullies who didn't like him, but Severus could no longer bring himself to care. Sure, he had lost Lily's friendship, but Lily... Lily had been drifting away from him for so long even beforehand, more interested in impressing Professor Slughorn than discovering new ways of brewing potions. Maybe it was normal, Severus wondered, for friends to grow apart as they matured and their interests differed. Maybe Lily's reaction to his lashing out had been one of relief, glad he had finally severed the ties she'd long wanted to let go.

The thought made Severus uncomfortable, and he pushed it from his mind. It was odd to think that though he had fancied himself in love with Lily for half his life, he no longer felt any sort of pull towards her at all. He didn't miss her, he didn't ache to see her... if he finally did see her, Severus suspected he'd only feel a vague sense of pity, knowing she'd missed out on so much that he'd never be able to see her as an equal again.

A spell flew out of nowhere, and Severus yelled as he dodged, rapidly firing back at the spot where the spell came from. Hexes and spells flew back and forth, everyone shielding and dodging like mad. Severus whipped off several bashing curses in a row, and a few of them hit, judging from the angry yells.

"_Churasqayki!_"

They all dodged the curse, hurling their own Incan Disarming charms back at the caster.

"Wait!" Severus called out. "That voice – I think that's Kingsley-"

His sentence was cut off as someone took advantage of his momentary distraction to hit him with a stunner, and Severus fell to the floor.

"_Ennervate."_

Severus groaned and sat up, and Hermione was laughing.

"You okay?"

"I'm fine," Severus said, rubbing his head. "How was it?"

"Absolutely horrible," Hermione said cheerily. "We stunned just over half of you, and you did all the rest."

Severus groaned and Hermione laughed, moving on to the next person to revive.

"At least you won the bet," Tom said from his left, smirking.

"There is that." Severus rolled his neck, stretching. "I bet everyone's ready to kill Fred and George."

"You have no idea," Tom said cheerily. "Before she revived you, Hermione and Harry had to re-stun all of Draco's group, who'd started casting hexes at Fred and George the moment they were revived."

Severus chuckled. "Wish I'd seen that."

"I nearly joined in."

The others were gradually revived, everyone shooting Fred and George dark looks, who were looking determinedly at the sky.

"Well," Harry said, once everyone was awake. "What did we learn today?"

There was a silence.

"Disillusionment is intended for sneaking," Fred said.

"Not for spell battles," added George.

Harry smirked. "Got it in one."

He turned to go, and the other leaders left with him.

"Practice dueling again today," Harry called back over his shoulder. "Hopefully tomorrow, you can give us more of a work-out."

Hermione tossed Severus a jaunty look, and Severus' eyes glinted in response to the unspoken challenge.


	16. Chapter 16

**Chapter 16**

As soon as the squad leaders Disapparated from the clearing, Severus was ready. He checked his watch as he quickly case a large _Muffliato _over them, as well as a silencing charm on the forest so they couldn't hear anything going on.

"Everyone circle up," he announced. "We've got a new plan of action today."

Everyone groaned.

"Who put _you_ in charge?" Cormac McLaggen wanted to know.

"All our plans turn out badly," Emily Abbot said, sniffing.

"All _your_ plans turned out badly," Severus corrected. "Listen. This is what we're going to do."

Severus withdrew a small golden hourglass from his robes, along with a large length of gold chain. Neville gasped.

"That's a Time-Turner," he said, reverent. "Where'd you get something like that?"

"How I got it is not the issue," Severus said. "What's important is what it can do."

"What can it do?" Tonks asked, moving closer.

"It can transport us through time," Severus said. "It can take us an hour back in time, when none of us were in this clearing. We can all go back, then enter the forest _before_ the leaders do, and catch them by surprise."

"That's your great plan?" Kingsley said, his voice skeptical. "That sounds like it's against the rules."

"I don't think it is," Tom said. "If we wait the half-hour we're supposed to, and _then_ go back in time, we'd still get there just before the squad leaders did and be able to surprise them."

"That'll be the only advantage we'll actually get in battle tomorrow," Severus reminded them, his voice grim. "I think they almost expect us to do something like this. If we don't actually give them a good run of it, they won't think we're ready for actual combat."

Everyone fell silent.

"How will we know where to go in the forest?" Lupin asked, and Severus felt a rush of gratitude at his support.

"That's easy," Tom said. "I looked through their complete memories of the first time. They all Apparate to the middle of the forest, where there's a little clearing. They wait to see what our plan is, and then react and spread out from there. We'll just need to Apparate to the middle of the forest like they do, before they do."

"Can you get us there?" Severus asked.

"I can Apparate myself and a few others," Tom said, frowning. "Everyone else will have to blindly Apparate and follow my guide. It should work."

"That's our plan, then," Severus said. "Everyone, gather in and form a tight circle. Get ready. Wands out."

Everyone crowded around, bumping shoulders as they made a circle. Severus walked around everyone, draping his long length of gold chain across everyone's necks, making sure the gold touched their skin. When he got back to where he'd started, he clipped the ends of the chain to the Time Turner, which glittered in the sun.

"Everybody ready?" Severus called out.

"Just how far back will this take us?" a boy called Justin called out.

"We should arrive fifteen minutes before we get to the clearing," Severus told him. "We'll land, I'll take off the chain, and then we'll all Apparate. We should have ten minutes to spare. Ready?"

There was a chorus of assent, and Severus turned the hourglass upside-down.

The clearing blurred around them, and they could see themselves walk backwards with their leaders, leaving, like they were watching a tape on rewind. The clearing was quiet and empty again, and the blurring stopped.

Severus moved quickly, wrapping up the chain and tucking it into his robes.

"Everyone join hands," Tom instructed. "Blank minds. On my count, just Apparate, and trust my sense Destination will get us where we need to go. Ready? One, two, _three_."

They turned and stepped into nowhere, Tom pulling them along, and Severus felt a horrid squelching sensation, before they materialized into the middle of the forest in a small clearing.

"_Nicely_ done!" Cormac McLaggen crowed, looking around. "I can't believe we really pulled this off!"

"This is only part of what's going on," Severus told him sharply. "The leaders will be here any moment. We need to be ready. Everyone, get into pairs." They all gravitated toward their customary partners, and Severus nodded. "Good. Spread out around the clearing. Hide behind a tree or something so the leaders won't be able to see you from the clearing. The second they arrive, start casting. Make sure none of them break through our line to get behind us – if they win again this time, that'll be how they manage it."

"Focus on Disarming and Stunning," he instructed. "Work with your partner so while one of you shields, the other is attacking. The second you lose your wand, use your ring. Be as fierce and offensive as you can – the only way we'll be able to beat them is with overpowering force."

"You're right," Kingsley said, and Severus turned to look at him in surprise. "I mean, both previous rounds, it's always been the offensive team that wins. The leaders rarely use defensive strategies – they just doge and shield long enough so they can get off their next curse."

"There's another thing," Severus said. "Repeat after me: susunkay."

"Su-soon-kay," they repeated.

"Good," Severus said. "Move your wand in the same movement for _Diffindo_ and yell that. About half the time, it'll stun them. It won't go through shields, but they won't know that, and hopefully it'll catch them off-guard. Any questions?"

The crowd looked at him in puzzlement, some of them skeptical, but most just curious.

"How- did you learn all this?" Neville asked, his eyes wide. "Where'd you learn that spell? Where'd you get the Time-Turner? I mean, this is..." He trailed off, watching him, and others turned to him curiously as well.

"I might have borrowed some things form Hermione's bag," he told them, and he almost laughed as their eyes widened. Tom laughed and clapped him on the back.

"Good thinking," he said, grinning. "Fight fire with fire and all that rot. Anyway, everybody ready?"

There was a collective yes, and Severus smirked.

"Good. Take your positions."

They all quietly edged back into the forest around the clearing, making sure they blended in with the trees while still having a clear line of sight to the clearing.

"Ten minutes now," Severus told them all. "I'll warn you when there's two minutes left."

To his surprise, a few of the others took the initiative to start casting Anti-Apparition jinxes on the clearing, with Michael Corner warding the area to only prevent Disapparition, still allowing others to Apparate there. Several others cast trap spells that would make the leaders' robes turn bright orange when touched, and a few others laid down general malediction spells to make the leaders prone to tripping and the like.

Severus watched on in silence, the smirk on his face slowly spreading.

"Two minutes," he called out at while later. "Be ready."

The others backed back into their hiding positions. All around him, Severus could see, tense, excited faces, his friends poised to attack. Next to him, Tom shifted, ready to spring, and Severus shifted as well, prepared to move.

"Five," he said aloud, checking his watch. "Four, three..."

A moment later, there was a loud pop, and there was a moment's hesitation as everyone saw their leaders arrive, and then the air exploded with spellfire.

When Severus awoke the last time, Hermione was looking down at him with respect.

"You planned that," she said. "You planned the whole ambush."

Severus coughed, sitting up. "What makes you think it was me?"

He looked around. Everyone was sprawled out unconscious once again, but this time, their leaders were unconscious as well, and Severus felt a rush of pride. If Hermione had woken him up, she had been the only leader to remain standing. Even Harry was splayed out on the ground next to his squad.

"No one else would be able to get the hang of transporting in a period of three days," she told him. "How did you figure it out?"

Severus looked at her sideways.

"Master transporting?" he asked her, and she nodded.

"I mean, it took me forever to master it," she said. "Even after I got the idea that it should be possible, it took me weeks of experimentation with Quantum Arithmancy to figure out the best way to represent dates and locations in my head simultaneously and concretely enough to qualify as a destination, and then even longer to figure out how to be determined enough to cart around fifty odd people, as necessary, and then-"

"Wait. _Wait,_ Hermione." Severus interrupted, staring at her. "You- you've been transporting everyone through time _by yourself?"_

She looked up him, surprise in her eyes as they met his.

"Of course," she said. "Isn't that what you did?"

Severus goggled at her.

"But- the transportation formation," he said. "It's arranged so all seven leaders lock onto each other, not all of them onto you. I thought you all shared the burden and transported together. But you- you've been Apparating forty-two people through time _by yourself?_"

"If you _didn't_ figure out transportation," Hermione said, utterly ignoring his demands, "then how did you ambush us?"

Wordlessly, Severus held out her Time-Turner to her, along with the length of chain he'd found in the emperor's smithy, and Hermione began to laugh.

"Oh, brilliant," she said, taking the Time-Turner from him. "I should have known! You're never one for large, elaborate plans when a simple one will do. Well done, Severus. Really, well done."

She smiled at him, a devious, proud sort of smile, and Severus felt his heart skip a beat.

"Hermione..."

He reached out, laying a hand on her arm, and she turned to look at him, questioning.

"You... you figured out all this Time-Travel stuff on your own, didn't you?" he asked. "None of the others know what you're doing, do they? That's why you're in charge of saving people – you're the only one who can actually transport anyone..."

Hermione gave him a measuring look.

"Yes," she said finally. "I'm the only one who can do it yet."

Severus' head felt light.

"How... how is that?" he asked. "Can anyone else learn to do it? Could I...?"

Hermione sighed.

"It was a lot of work. I first got the idea in sixth year, when my professor first mentioned Quantum Arithmancy," she told him, her voice nostalgic. "I worked on the theories all sixth year, and then the next year, when it was becoming apparent that we would need them... I finished them. I mastered the ability to transport back through time and sort between timelines to find the events and people I needed. After I had, I told Harry and Ron, and we planned this little club as a way to find us what we needed."

"What are you looking for?" Severus asked her, his eyes intent on hers. "Hermione, what is so important that you've gone skipping through time searching for it?"

"You'll find out soon enough," she said. She shifted, getting up and stretching, before walking over and reviving Harry, who quickly came too.

"What the hell, Hermione?" he demanded, rubbing his back. "What were you after, stunning me?"

"You darted in my way as I was finishing off Severus," Hermione said hotly. "Your fault for not looking both ways."

"_I_ stunned the last one, not you," Harry protested, stretching and getting off his rear.

"Well, I _would_ have got him, if you hadn't run in front of my wand-"

They kept arguing as they went around the circle, reviving all the others with repeated _Ennervates_. Severus glanced at them before reviving Tom next to him, who coughed and got up.

"That was what a battle's bloody well supposed to be like," Tom said, grinning as he coughed. "Who finally got me in the end?"

"I think it was Hermione," Severus told him. "She got you and Kingsley as you hit Ron with that Body-Bind."

"Good enough," Tom said, sitting back in satisfaction. "How long did it go on?"

Severus checked his watch. "It's been an hour since they arrived in the clearing. I don't know how long I was unconscious, but I'd venture... at least half an hour of uninterrupted, constant spellfire."

"_Nice._"

As the other members awoke and saw their leaders laid out unconscious among them, they exchanged excited, pleased looks, shooting grateful grins at Severus, who nodded and smiled to himself. When everyone was finally awake once more, Harry addressed them all.

"For those who fell early," he said. "All but one of your leaders were successfully stunned before the last of you fell. Very, _very_ well done, all of you."

The clearing burst into applause and cheers, and Severus clapped right along with them, Tom elbowing him and grinning at him from the side.

"That about makes up for our previous dismal two performances, right?" he said.

"Let's hope so," Severus murmured. "Let's certainly hope so."

Harry raised a hand, and the clearing quieted.

"Tomorrow, we do battle," he told them. "It will be much the same as today – we will be fighting against people clothed in black robes with white skull masks. We won't be able to change their cloaks' colors or set up Disapparition wards, but we _will_ be able to make a decent run of it."

"We will have two goals," Harry said, holding up his fingers. "One, we will disarm and collect as many wands of the enemy as possible. And two, we will capture at least one of them alive."

His eyes were fierce, and Severus wondered if that meant not all of their enemies would _stay_ alive, and if they would be tortured for information. Harry certainly seemed capable of it, if necessary. Severus turned to look at Hermione, who looked grim but resigned, before rapidly turning back to Harry.

"We will capture as many alive as possible," Harry told them, and his eyes burned with fire. "But do not delude yourselves – we _will _be fighting for our lives."


	17. Chapter 17

A/N: Killing Curse theory adapted from ErinThead's Avada Kedavra essay found at Erinthread dot com slash writing slash harrypotter slash killingcurse dot htm.

**Chapter 17**

"Hermione! _Hermione!_"

"I'm fine," Hermione coughed. "Severus, I'm fine. Really."

"You took a bone-bashing hex to your tibia," Severus said, incredulous. "Let me help you!"

"It's nothing," Hermione said. She pointed and jabbed at her shin. A blue light encased her leg, glowing and pulsing slightly before the light faded.

"There," Hermione said, staggering to her feet. "Good as new."

Severus gave her a skeptical look. A loud scream pierced the air, and they exchanged a look before running toward the scream together.

Hermione seemed to know her way through the Forbidden Forest exceptionally well. A few moments later, they burst into a clearing with several Young Adventurers and one dark-robed figure motionless on the ground.

"Hermione!"

Neville was ecstatic, running up throwing his arms around her. "Hermione, we got her! We _got_ her!"

Severus heard Hermione's breath catch. "You did?"

Neville grinned wildly, and Severus had never seen him so happy.

"She tried to shield against the Incan Disarming charm," Neville said, beaming as he pulled back. "She tried to flee, but Seamus got her with a Full Body-Bind."

"Well done," Hermione said, and Severus could tell she meant it. "Anyone else?"

"I think Kingsley and Harry managed to take down Dolohov," Dean Thomas piped up. "Most of the Death Eaters have fled, but some of us were catching up to them in the end."

"Hermione!"

The loud call came from far down the forest, and Hermione straightened.

"Stay here with Bellatrix," Hermione told Neville. "Stun her and bind her. We don't want to take any chances."

Neville nodded, and Hermione took off running toward the front battle lines, Severus sprinting afterward. The trees nearly blurred as they ran. 200 yards or so later, they skidded to a halt at Harry, who was crouched over a body and looked bleak.

"They got Ron," he told her, his eyes wet and red. "Hermione..."

Hermione fell to her knees and put her arms around Harry, and Harry shuddered against her. They both looked down at Ron's body, which was still.

"The others?" Hermione asked quietly.

"They got Dolohov, along with Avery and Rodolphus," Harry told her, his voice shaking. "Rabastan and our Avery are super shaken. Delta and Zeta squads are watching them, Draco and Blaise guarding them all. All the other Death Eaters have gone."

They lapsed into silence, not moving.

"Hermione," Harry asked, and Severus could hear his voice breaking. "Why hasn't he gotten up?"

"This is experimental, Harry," Hermione said. Her voice was barely a whisper, and Severus could tell she was holding back tears. "It could take up to three minutes since he was hit."

"It feels like it's been forever."

Severus looked down at Ron from the trees. His eyes were shut, and he wasn't breathing. Severus wondered what was supposed to happen – Ron looked most definitely dead.

Ron suddenly took a deep, sucking breath, before coughing and sitting up. Harry and Hermione were on him in an instant, laughing and crying, and Ron was laughing and crying with them, and Severus was struck by their raw emotion. They were clinging to each other and laughing now, all of them crying from happiness, and it was the most raw expression of joy Severus had ever seen, and he wondered if he'd ever see such a display again.

"'Mione," Ron said, when they had finally pulled away to let him breathe. "'Mione, you did it. You _did_ it. How did you know?"

"That," Hermione explained, "is a very, _very_ long story, involving alternate timelines I peeked in on, but the gist of it came to me when Harry blasted the locket apart."

Severus caught Harry's look of surprise and shame.

"It did?" Harry asked. "How?"

"Well, the Avada Kedavra you cast at the locket didn't work, did it?" Hermione reasoned. "We could still feel the soul bit even after the locket was broken, and Ron swore he saw a little inky black cloud drift off."

"I _did_ see that cloud," Ron said stubbornly. "Just because you and Harry didn't-"

"_Regardless_," Hermione said, ignoring Ron. "It led me to research why the Killing Curse didn't work on the locket and how the Killing Curse worked in general, which led me to figure out a way to make a body-crux."

"A body-crux?"

Hermione nodded. "I swear I can explain it all at leisure later, if you really insist," she said, "but shouldn't we be rounding up the Death Eaters now?"

"Oh! Right!" Harry leapt to his feet and hauled Ron to his.

"We got Dolohov," Harry told Ron, and Ron folded his arms.

"Good," he said vehemently. "I still owe him for all those little brains."

"I think _I_ owe him the most," Hermione said dryly, and Harry smirked.

"Nah, you owe Bellatrix the most," Ron said. "After what she did to you on the floor of Malfoy Manor..."

"Neville will fight you on that one," Harry said. "Dean had a hard time of stopping Neville from smashing her head in with a rock, I hear..."

As Harry and Ron drifted off through the forest in discussion, Hermione turned to Severus and smiled.

"Come with me?"

Severus laughed.

"You just want an intelligent discussion partner to explain your masterful success over the Killing Curse to," Severus said, his eyes glittering.

"So?" Hermione challenged. "I know you want to know how it works."

Severus laughed and joined her, and they headed off back into the forest to collect the rest of their captured foes.

"So explain this now," Harry said, propping his head up on his hand and watching Hermione. "_How_ did you defeat the Killing Curse?"

"I didn't _defeat_ it so much as make a work around," Hermione said. "Ron still died – he was just able to come back to life."

Severus raised an eyebrow and moved his chair closer. After all the captives had been trussed up, they'd transported back to their familiar quarters in China, where the emperor's soldiers were only too happy to loan them space for their enemies in their dungeons. Most everyone was currently in magic lesson, with the other four squad leaders guarding the prisoners.

Severus had opted to skip the magic lesson and had stayed at Hermione's side. To his surprise, Tom had as well, his eyes glinting as he listened, but giving no inkling as to his reasoning as he did. Ron glanced over at Severus and Tom, uneasy.

"Hermione," he said finally. "Are you sure you want to explain all this in front of them?"

"It's easier to explain it to them now," Hermione admitted. "We're going to need Tom to do something that has to do with all this fairly soon, and it'd be easier if he understood why he should."

Ron gave her an uneasy look but sighed and acquiesced. Harry turned to face them.

"Do either of you know of Voldemort?" he asked them bluntly.

Severus and Tom both jerked upright, caught off-guard.

"If I'm right," Severus said slowly, "that's the name of the Dark Lord that was gaining power in my time at Hogwarts. No one actually learns his name until they join, but I heard whispers of what it was."

Harry nodded and turned to Tom, who looked murderous.

"It was my nickname in school," he spat. "You already know that."

Severus turned to stare at Tom, who looked defiant.

"You...?" he said. "You... you're the Dark Lord?"

Tom glared back at him. "Apparently."

"Tom is _not_ the same person as Voldemort," Hermione said, her voice annoyed. "I made sure of that."

"_That's_ why you came back in time to help me?" Tom said, outraged. "Just so I wouldn't grow up to be the Dark Lord? I thought you were my friend!"

"You haven't finished growing up yet," Hermione pointed out, her voice cold. "You still have time to become a Dark Lord if you want to, so if that was my goal, I've done a pretty piss-poor job of it, haven't I?"

"Then what _did_ you do?" Tom demanded.

"I made sure you didn't scar your soul before you turned seventeen," Hermione told him. "That's _it_. The Tom Riddle from our timeline had already torn his asunder by the time he was seventeen, and I didn't want that for you, or I wouldn't have been able to bring you along on our quest." She paused. "...that's all I was hoping to get out it, anyway. Somewhere along the way, I'd thought I'd made a friend." She looked up at him, and her eyes were soft, hurt. "Was I wrong?"

Severus could see Tom's tongue tie up. "I- no, Hermione, you're not wrong. It's just- I thought-"

He broke off, putting his hands in his head. After a moment, Harry continued.

"In my timeline, Voldemort had nearly made himself immortal," Harry said. "He's made what are called Horcruxes."

"What's a Horcrux?" Severus asked, and to his surprise, Tom answered.

"A Horcrux is an something you put a bit of your soul into," he said, his voice a dull monotone. "When a wizard does very Dark Magic and splits his soul, there's an old ritual that can put one of the halves into an object. That way, when the wizard is killed or his body destroyed, he keeps living on – he just has to find another body to inhabit instead."

Severus sat very still. "How do you know this?"

"I was interested in immortality, when I was younger," Tom said, his voice flat. "This was one of the ideas I toyed with. Never seriously, as it was awful, and I figured out a different way to get what I wanted later."

"Really?" Ron look surprised. "How?"

Tom ignored him. "How many does Voldemort have?" he asked Harry instead. "When I first considered it, I think I wanted to make six, for a seven-part whole."

"Same as our timeline," Harry told him. "Only... we suspect that Voldemort accidentally made one he didn't intend on."

"Accidentally made one?" Severus said, frowning. "Without the ritual? What was it?"

"Me," said Harry.

There was a silence.

"How?" Tom said finally.

"No idea," Harry said darkly. "But Dumbledore suspected it was because Voldemort's soul was already so shredded and unstable at that point. But yeah – pretty sure I've got a fragment of Voldemort's soul inside of me, lodged in there next to my own."

"Anyway," Ron said. "After Dumbledore was killed, it was pretty clear we were supposed to hunt down all Voldemort's horcruxes and destroy them. We managed to find most of them, but we messed up destroying them."

Harry snorted. "You'd think Dumbledore would have flat-out said_, '_Don't use Avada Kedavra on the Horcruxes.' But he didn't. Typical."

"Anyway, so when we got the first one, Slytherin's locket, Avada Kedavra just blasted it apart, and the little soul-bit escaped," Ron said. "We tried again with the next one we got, the Hufflepuff cup, but this time we sliced it apart with a goblin-made sword, and then the bit of soul died." He shuddered. "It was pretty twisted."

"So," Hermione said. "We're looking for ancient magic to summon together all the bits of Voldemort's soul so we can destroy the entire thing all at once. There's no way we know to get the little bit that escaped the locket back. Hence, the Young Adventurer's Club."

"That _still_ doesn't explain how you brought me back to life," Ron said. "_I_ haven't heard anything new."

Hermione shot him a dark look.

"After the locket was blasted apart, I realized there must be more to the killing curse than point and kill," Hermione said, turning to look at Severus instead of Ron. "Upon further research, I found I was right – the Killing Curse merely terminates a person's life force. It does nothing to their soul."

"Life force?" Ron asked. "What's that?"

"Quite simply, what keeps a person living," Hermione said. "Properly cast, Avada Kedavra will terminate a being's life force, which leaves the soul to depart. The curse then senses that there's no soul matched to the body and the curse ends."

"That's why you can still kill Dementor victims with that spell," Harry said, understanding. "It just terminates their life force. It doesn't matter that their soul's already gone."

"Right," Hermione said. "However, whenever Avada Kedavra's used on an object, the curses can't detect any life force, so it turns into raw energy and blows the object up. That's what happened to the Horcrux."

"Still no idea why I'm alive," Ron reminded her, and Hermione rolled her eyes.

"When faced with the truth of how Avada Kedavra worked, I realized that the premise of a Horcrux could be reversed," Hermione explained. "With Horcruxes, the source of the soul of the Horcrux, the wizard's consciousness, is protected from passing beyond the veil, as parts of the same soul cannot exist both in this world and beyond it. The fragment of soul stored in the Horcrux _isn't _protected, though. Using this premise, I realized that if there was something of the person's physical body left, they might be able to return to life."

"Hermione," Harry groaned, rubbing his head. "What are you talking about?"

Hermione sighed.

"There was another timeline," Hermione said. "In it, Voldemort cast Avada Kedavra at you. You were able to return to life because Voldemort's body was still alive, and it tethered your body, its source, to life."

Harry stared.

"I... _died?_"

"You did," Hermione confirmed. "And you will in this timeline, too, unless we can find a spell to summon the Horcrux bit out from inside of you. But that's the premise I based the theory on – if another body used some of _your _body to stay alive, you'd be able to return to your own body. The other body would tether your own to life."

"All the blood," Severus breathed, everything coming together. "That's why you had us donate so much blood."

"As much as we could," Hermione confirmed, nodding. "Each and every one of us has at least one person alive today who is alive only because they received our blood. That other person's life tethers us to life. So long as our bodies aren't destroyed, we can return to life after being hit with Avada Kedavra."

"Makes sense," Ron said, nodding. "I got the choice to go on, though. There was a train station. For the longest time, I wanted to go, but it didn't seem right, you know? I've never traveled on the Hogwarts Express without you and Harry, so I went back to find you."

"And _that_ is why we screened for suicidal people," Hermione told him. "I didn't want anyone voluntarily going on."

"I got the impression that everyone gets that choice, though," Ron said, frowning. "Not just me."

"I wouldn't be surprised," Hermione said lightly. "I'd imagine people who came back are ghosts. Their bodies weren't tethered to life, so after the soul left, their bodies shut down, and their souls couldn't return to them."

Ron and Harry exchanged an uneasy look. Severus watched them, before glancing over at Tom, who looked thoughtful.

"So we're _only_ protected from the Killing Curse because it doesn't destroy our physical body," he said. "Anything else can still kill us?"

"Exactly," Hermione said. "Fiendfyre, for instance, will be an irreversible doom. If you die and you know your body's been obliterated, don't bother trying to come back."

"That leaves us with one question," Harry said, his eyes sharp. "Can a fragment of a soul be called back from beyond the veil?"

"I have no idea," Hermione said, standing. "That's what Bellatrix is here for – so we can find out."


	18. Chapter 18

**A/N:****The content of this chapter has raised the story's rating to 'M'. Viewer discretion advised.  
**

**Chapter 18**

Bellatrix Lestrange, née Black, was spitting at him.

"Severus," she hissed. "I always knew you were a traitor."

Severus restrained himself from reacting, even as blood ran cold. A traitor? A traitor to the Pureblood cause? Or a traitor to something more...?

"That's enough," Harry said sharply. "Prepare yourself, Bellatrix."

"Explain this to me again," Tom said, watching as Hermione sat down on a large futon that had been carted down for her. "You're going to cast the a soul-healing spell on her?"

"I am," Hermione confirmed. "Bellatrix made a Horcrux herself, one that we destroyed in Basilisk venom – her wand."

Bellatrix's eyes bulged and she writhed, trying to lash out at them. Ron smiled grimly.

"Didn't know that, did you, bitch?" he asked her. "Your poor wand is gone."

"If parts of souls can come back from beyond the veil with this spell, we'll be able to use it on Voldemort," Hermione said. "If they _can't_, though, this spell won't work on Voldemort at all, as he still has a couple Horcruxes left, as far as we can tell."

"He does?" Tom asked, surprised. "What?"

"Nagini, as far as we can tell," Ron told him off to the side. "Ravenclaw's diadem – we have that one, but we haven't destroyed it just yet. And Harry."

"Bellatrix only made one Horcrux," Harry said, his eyes hard. "At least, we think. I suppose we'll find out soon enough. Ron, want to get Neville?"

Ron rose and went to the door, returning a moment later with Neville in tow.

"So what's this depend on?" Severus asked Hermione. "What's about to happen?"

"There are three possibilities," Hermione explained. "If soul fragments can return from beyond the veil, Bellatrix's soul will be healed of all its splits and tears. If soul fragments cannot return and Bellatrix only had one Horcrux, she will die as a result of the spell being incomplete. And if soul fragments cannot return and Bellatrix has another Horcrux we don't know about, she will survive, as her other Horcrux will tether her to life."

"I'm hoping she dies," Neville said, his eyes flashing. "Do you hear that, Bellatrix? I hope you _die._"

Bellatrix started laughing, high and cold.

"You're so funny, pretending to be brave," she told him, madness behind her eyes. "Your parents started off the same way, when we had them captured. Telling us they wouldn't break, wouldn't tell us anything. Then they started to scream..."

Neville made as if to hit her, but Ron held him back.

"Enough," Harry said, disgusted. "Hermione, cast it and be done with it."

Hermione took a deep breath to steady herself and readied her wand.

"_Purajmanta q'achi."_

Bellatrix screamed as the beam of dark blue light hit her. The beam kept coming from Hermione wand, and she held it steady, bracing herself against the futon's frame.

"Steady," Harry urged her. "Here it comes..."

A black cloud erupted from Bellatrix's chest and dissipated, and her screams abruptly cut off. The blue beam of light gone, Hermione slowly lowered her wand.

"Option two," she said, her voice numb. "Fragments can't return, and she only had one."

"_Damn!"_

Severus turned sharply at the sound of a loud thud, to find Harry had punched a hole through his desk. Harry looked down at his fist embedded in the desk, then wrenched it free. He turned to look at them as he held his damaged hand, ignoring the blood running down his arm.

"I was hoping this would work," he told them, his voice vehement. "That this would be it. That this whole bloody war would be _over..._"

He turned away, and Ron went over to him quietly, putting a hand on his shoulder in silent comfort. Hermione looked exhausted, but she raised a hand, and Blaise came in from outside of the dungeon.

"No luck?" he questioned, and Hermione shook her head. "Ready for Prisoner Number Two?"

"Bring him in," Hermione said, tired. "You can take Neville back out."

Blaise escorted Neville out of the dungeon, whose eyes were bright with fulfilled vengeance. Severus turned to see Hermione, whose eyes were dull.

"Are you okay?" he asked her, and Hermione gave him a sad little smile.

"I just killed someone," she said, sighing. "No, I suspect I'm not."

"You didn't mean to, though," he said. He paused. "Did you?"

"No." She bit her lip. "I honestly thought she had another Horcrux – she was so unstable that it'd have made sense. And it was a spell of healing, not of killing. I... but I still..."

She trailed off, looking lost, and Severus' heart went out to her.

"You did what you must," he told her, his voice quiet. "Far greater lives have been lost in sacrifice in your war, and far greater lives will still be lost can this not come to an end."

She looked at him, gratefully, before turning away. A few minutes later, Draco and Ginny came through the door, a strange Death Eater in tow.

"Who's that?" Severus asked.

"Dolohov," Tom answered, his face inscrutable. "I recognize him." He turned to Hermione. "What're you going to do with him?"

"Try something similar," Hermione said, pushing her hair behind an ear. "Ancient Egyptian rite for reuniting the parts of the soul."

"Does he have a Horcrux, too?" Tom didn't bother to hide his surprise. "I thought... I'm surprised the Dark Lord taught them such magic."

"He didn't tell them what they were doing," Harry said grimly. "A few of his chosen favorites were guided through a ritual that would make them more powerful. By making their wands into Horcruxes, any spell they cast gained an incredible edge."

"When did all this happen?" Severus asked.

"Relatively recently, in our timeline," Harry said, glancing up at Hermione. "I think after we soul-bombed his house and killed all the dementors, right?"

"Must have been," Hermione agreed. "He realized if he wanted to keep his followers around, he'd have to take some precautions for their continued safety."

Draco and Ginny locked Dolohov into place in the restraints, and put his wand on the table nearest him, before bowing and leaving.

"You didn't destroy his?" Severus asked. "Why not?"

"Different experiment," Ron said briskly. "Different set of starting circumstances."

"I don't think this will work," Hermione cautioned them.

"It's worth a shot," Harry said firmly. "Ron, go ahead."

"Right."

Ron snapped Dolohov's wand over his knee, and Severus watched as an inky black cloud escaped from the core. Hermione leveled her wand at Dolohov.

"_A'nen Akh kaBa."_

No visible light touched Dolohov, but he gave a great shudder before breaking into a fit of coughing and choking, gasping for air. A moment later, he stopped, and his head hung down, his tongue rolling out of his mouth. Hermione looked away, and Draco and Blaise hurried into the room to carry him away.

Severus was torn between fascinated and horrified. "What was that supposed to do?"

"Reunite the three parts of his soul," Hermione said, shaking her head. "Egyptians believed in a five-part soul, three parts of which survived after death. We were hoping the spell would reunite all the parts of his soul inside Dolohov."

"So it pulled the rest of his soul from him?" Tom asked. "Why'd he die, then? Soul is different from life-force, right?"

"Not to the Egyptians," Ron told him. "'Ka' is their life-force and part of their five-part soul. That reunited with the rest of his soul – unfortunately outside of his body."

"Who's next?" Harry's voice was cold. "Rodolphus?"

"He's the last of the Inner Circle we got," Hermione said, her voice weak. "He'll be here soon."

Severus looked at Hermione with concern. Her eyes were closed, and she was resting back on the futon, her face pale. She looked ill. His mind made up, he went and sat down next to her, shifting her and pulling her into his lap.

"What-?" Hermione's eyes flickered open and she looked at him. "Severus?"

"You're drained," he told her. "You're trying powerful unknown spells one right after the other without taking a break to recuperate. You need to recharge your core."

Hermione raised an eyebrow.

"And me being in your lap helps with that how, exactly?"

Severus ignored her, instead, taking her hand in his and rubbing a finger over the back of her hand. Hermione's eyes only showed puzzlement, so with a careful breath, Severus reached out with his ring, feeling for the element of life in everything, and pushed it through his hand into hers.

A startled look came over Hermione's face, before her eyes fluttered and she relaxed against him, taking deep, even breaths. She stretched lightly, sighing, and looked down at their joined hands.

"Your ring," she said faintly. "When did you get a fire opal?"

"As soon as you told me it was possible," Severus said. "I finally found one when we were down in the previous emperor's tomb." He raised his left hand. "I still wear my emerald one as well, as back-up."

Hermione laughed, a soft exhale of amusement. "I should have known," she said, shaking her head. "I should have known you'd want one as well."

She smiled at him, and Severus smiled back at her. He could feel Tom glaring daggers at him from across the room, but his jealous anger was easy to ignore with Hermione in his arms.

"You think you know about Chinese magic?" she teased, and her eyes sparkled. "You know nothing, Severus."

A warm feeling of power hit him, rolling up his arms in hot, sensual waves, and Severus shivered under the feeling, his body suddenly ultra-aware of her in his lap. His eyes met hers, and Hermione smirked.

"Is... that what it felt like for you?" He managed to keep his voice relatively normal as he asked. "When I tried to give you energy?"

Her eyes danced. "That's exactly what it felt like."

"Well, then..."

Severus to a deep breath and called to the energy in the air around them and from the earth beneath his feet. He felt it build within him, an awkward growing sensation, as if he had taken a deep breath and was holding on, refusing to let out his lungs. After it had built up within him, he exhaled, pushing the energy into her, feeling hot waves of power run through him to roll into her.

He could tell the moment the energy hit Hermione. Whereas one moment her eyes were sparkling, teasing him, the next moment her eyes had gone molten, and her mouth opened in a silent gasp. "_Oh,"_ she said, and Severus' body reacted, his cock stiffening at her quiet moan. He shifted under her, trying ensure she wouldn't notice his hardness against her bum, but the power rolling through her ended too soon for her to continue to be distracted.

A mischievous smile crept onto her lips, and she interlaced her fingers with his.

"You're too nice to me," she told him, and then a wave of sensation hit him. He groaned quietly, his neck arching as the wave of power filled him, setting his nerve endings alight, and when it finally rolled through him, he was left hot and panting, ready and wanting more.

He growled, pulling her towards him. Her pupils were dilated, her eyes smoldering at him, and her lips were full, begging to be kissed.

"This is a dangerous thing you are toying with," he growled. "The fire would consume you."

Hermione's smile was naughty, impish. "Maybe I like playing with fire."

He groaned again at her words.

His train of thought was abruptly derailed by the dungeon door clattering open once more as Blaise and Draco returned with the third prisoner. He swallowed hard, his mind abruptly sharp once more.

It was Rodolphus Lestrange.

Rodolphus Lestrange may have been a prat, but he'd been his friend in school. He'd helped him out when Potter and Black came after him, and he'd understood his rage and anger. Part of Severus knew that this wasn't the same Rodolphus – this Rodolphus was a Death Eater who'd killed countless people – but he _looked_ the same, albeit twenty-some years was Rodolphus, his _friend_, and Severus... Severus was going to watch him die.

Suddenly, he couldn't stand it.

"Hermione," he said, and she looked at him. "Hermione. Is he going to die?"

Hermione looked at him. Her eyes flickered with understanding.

"No," she told him. "I'm going to try the Chinese method, to bring life and the void into harmony inside of him. If harmony isn't achieved, nothing will happen."

Severus nodded, and he watched as Hermione approached Rodolphus.

"Rodolphus Lestrange," she said, taking his wand in one hand. "Are you ready for your penance?"

Rodolphus jerked away from her other hand violently.

"How dare you lay a hand on me," he spat. "Filthy wretched Mudblood. I would kill you, and not even the worms would befoul themselves by touching your corpse."

Anger surged through Severus at his words, at the hatred in Rodolphus' eyes as he looked at Hermione, but Hermione kept still.

"Not today," she told him. "Now stay still."

She grabbed his face with her right hand, holding his jaw steady, and kept his wand in her left.

"_Liánhé tǒngyīshéng."_

Rodolphus screamed.

He screamed and screamed and screamed, and Severus wasn't the only one to cover his ears with his hands. Hermione held on, determined, and Rodolphus' face contorted in agony.

Severus wasn't sure how long it went on for, but when Hermione finally let her hands, the ensuing silence was blissful.

"The Chinese method doesn't work either," she said, rubbing her ears. She looked up. "I'm sorry, Harry, but that's all we've got."

Harry looked resolved.

"Right," he said. "I'll tell the others."

He left the dungeon, and Draco and Blaise carried a comatose Rodolphus from the dungeon chamber.

"Tell the others what?" Tom asked.

"Plan B," Ron said. "We keep on adventuring."

They continued to talk about where they would go next, but Severus couldn't hear them, his eyes on Hermione, who looked thoroughly miserable.

"I'm taking you up to bed," he announced, and he stood and went to her, helping her to her feet. "I'll bring your dinner up to you there."

"That's kind of you Severus, but really-" she protested. "I can manage myself."

"You can't," Severus said firmly, and the moment they were out the door and out of eyesight of the others, he swept her up into his arms, carrying her bridal-style. She let out a little "eep!" of surprise and clung to his neck.

"Severus! What do you think you are doing?"

"I thought that would be obvious," he said. "I'm carrying you up to your rooms."

"I don't _need_ carried!"

"I would beg to differ."

He began to climb the steps, and Hermione blushed a brilliant red in his arms.

"Put me down! My rooms are five floors up, you know!"

"So?" He pulled off the perfect inflection of bored nonchalance, and Hermione's enraged flush made him smirk.

"So, I know I'm far too heavy for you to carry all the way up there. Put me down at once!"

"You're not heavy," he told her. "Not heavy at all. And should my arms tire, I have the air at my beck and call to answer my request for aid."

"Not heavy at all?" She gaped at him. "You're very polite, but I know full well-"

"Need I distract you from your unnecessary diatribe?" he asked, a thought occurring to him. "Or will you cease your caterwauling on your own?"

"My _caterwualing?_ Oh, you!"

"Hush."

Severus shifted slightly so his right hand was touching her bare skin, and he pushed a wave of power into her skin, and Hermione's words abruptly cut off. She squirmed deliciously, and when her eyes looked back up to meet his, they were a dark liquid gold.

"You are _naughty_, Severus Snape," she told him. "You are a very naughty boy."

"Not so much a boy anymore, am I?" he asked, and she broke off in a moan as he pushed another wave of power through her, and she shuddered in his arms.

"No," she gasped. "Not a boy."

"I'm a man now, aren't I?" he asked her, pushing power into her once more.

"Yes!" Her voice was breathless. "Very much a man."

He continued to tease her, pushing little waves of power through her, feeling them roll through her body as she shivered and moaned in his arms. For once, he was glad for his freakish height – he was tall enough that when he carried her, she was in front of his torso, and she couldn't feel what her reactions had done to him down below. Somewhere around the third staircase, her protests stopped, and she wrapped her arms around his neck, her eyes boring down into his, full of sensual promises, dark and hot. He pushed power through her again and she shivered, her eyes never leaving his.

He finally reached her room and got the door open as she was moaning against him, writhing in his arms. As he laid her down in the bed, she grabbed him, flipping them around so it was he lying on the bed, with her straddling his waist.

"You," she purred, "have been a _very_ naughty Severus, you know."

She gave him a wanton look, and Severus had never been so hard in his life.

Slowly, giving him a teasing look, she rolled her hips against his own, and Severus groaned.

"Like that, do you?" she asked, breathless. "Or is this better?"

She rolled her hips again, moving in a small circle, and Severus saw stars as he swore.

"Merlin, Hermione," he groaned. "That feels-"

"Incredible?" Hermione asked, rolling her hips again. "Amazing? Wonderful? Mind-boggling?"

"I was _going_ to say 'bloody-well brilliant', but I think I'll go with 'all of the above'. _Gods_, woman," he swore, sitting up to grab a hold of her. "I feel like I'm about to explode."

"That's the idea," Hermione purred, and Severus nearly came apart at her words.

"_No. _If we are going to do this, Hermione, I want to-"

"Bully for what you want," Hermione said firmly. "What about what _I_ want to do?"

She rolled her hips against him once more, simultaneously pushing power through him as she ground on him through his clothes. A hot rush of power flooded through him, and his arousal spiraled around him, tightening, and breaking loose all in a rush, and Severus cried out, climaxing hard.

He fell back to the bed, panting, trying desperately to catch his breath, his face flushed. Part of him was mortified that he'd just come in his pants like a randy teenager, but a much _larger_ part of him was convinced that if _that_ was how she made him feel without even properly touching him, anything else was likely to permanently short-circuit his mind. He managed a gesture and a quick _Evanesco_ as he fought to slow his breathing, finally rolling over to look at her.

"_Hermione..."_

He stopped.

Hermione had fallen asleep already, curled up on her side.

Her whole body was relaxed, and Severus knew that all her experimental magic must have caught up to her, literally knocking her out. He recalled the last rush of power she had given him, and wondered if that last display of power had been what tipped her over the edge. She had a small smile playing about her lips, as if she knew what mischief she'd wrought even in her sleep, and her eyelashes fluttered against her cheeks.

Severus felt an unknown emotion fill up his throat as he watched her sleep. He reached out, softly touching her cheek as he pushed her hair from her face. Her skin was soft to his touch, and he swallowed hard.

"I- I'll go get your dinner."

His voice was an unheard whisper, but Severus couldn't stop himself as he watched her for a long moment longer, before wrenching himself from her bed and staggering down the stairs.


	19. Chapter 19

**Chapter 19**

When Severus came down to breakfast the next morning, he was surprised to see Hermione deep in discussion with Tom.

"Severus," Hermione said, greeting us. "How're you?"

"Hermione and I were just discussing how we should go to Delphi," Tom said, giving Hermione a cutting look. "The whole club, on the next aadventure."

Hermione gave Tom a sharp look. "Delphi's _dangerous_. It won't be abandoned, and there are powerful people there."

"Delphi is our best bet at finding your soul magic and you know it," Tom told her, his eyes glinting. "I say it's worth the risk."

"Delphi?" Draco Malfoy joined them, sitting down with a plate of fresh fruit. "Why Delphi?"

"You're not _actually _considering this, are you?" Hermione gave him a disgusted expression. "We have plenty of places left to check that are safely abandoned – there's Pompeii, Ephesus, and Teotihuacán, there there's the Petra in Jordan and Gaochang, in Xinjiang, and Angkor Wat-"

"_None_ of which have the requisite back story needed to give any indication they might know something about the splitting of souls," Tom cut in. "Delphi _does._"

"It does?" Harry said, coming over. "What's special about Delphi?"

Hermione sighed.

"Greek myth has mentions of soul-splitting, if you read between the lines," she said. "Most obvious is the three Fates, the daughters of Themis, the most powerful titaness and the goddess of necessity. The Fates were triplets who shared one soul."

"Themis gave them each a third at birth," Tom added. "It kept them inextricably bound to each other."

"Clotho, Lacheis, and Atropos also created, measured, and cut the thread of fate for all mortals," Hermione said. "Atropos' shears could cleave souls."

"Even more," Tom said, turning to Harry, "When Cronus killed his father, Uranus, he did so with a sickle sharpened for him by Gaia. The sickle cut him into seven different parts. Even in parts, he stayed alive, though his body was destroyed."

"So?" Ron asked, buttering a sweet roll. "Just sounds like a cool sword."

"A sickle is _not_ a sword," Draco said, rolling his eyes. "And staying alive with a destroyed body sounds an awful lot like a Horcrux, even if the weapon that caused it was intended to cut through wheat."

"Or cut down Olympians," Tom said. "In Greek times, the myths spoke of a coming second Titanomachy, where the Titans would rise up to reclaim Olympus. The gods believed such foretellings and prepared themselves for the second battle."

"So if Cronus had this weapon," Severus said, pieces starting to fit together. "This weapon of soul-severing, and the Olympians knew about it..."

"You bet your arse they'd have come up of some way to combat it," Tom finished. "Hence, a soul-reuniting spell."

"And the Oracle for the obvious reasons?" Harry asked. "Just to flat-out ask it what the spell is?"

"Why not?" Tom challenged. "Not everything has to be a dangerous run through a dungeon."

"You're ignoring the important part," Hermione told him. "Delphi will be _filled_ with danger. The gods will sense us, and they _will _come after us."

"_Gods?_" Ron said, incredulous. "'Mione, you don't really believe that-"

"It's long been suspected that the Olympian gods were just witches and wizards with a slightly different magic system," Draco told him with a scowl. "Did you _ever _pay attention in Binns' classes?"

"What kind of magic would we need to fight them?" Harry asked. "We're powerful in our own right."

"Yes, but we have no idea what we'd be up against," Hermione said. "Harry, they might not even try to fight us – they might take us for a lost sect of Olympians and abduct us to join them on Olympus as gods. We have no idea what might happen."

"They wouldn't," Tom said firmly. "Delphi is a holy site. So long as we stay firmly in the city, we're protected from harm by their own decree. The gods might come sniffing about, but they're not going to do anything to hurt us. If anything, we could drink wine together and learn from them."

Hermione threw her hands up. "Am I the only one who sees how spectacularly wrong this could end up?"

"I think it's worth the risk," Harry said. "Hermione, this is the best lead we have. We could spend _forever_ looking around time for the answer in ancient ruins. Why not just ask someone who might know?"

"I agree with Harry," Ron said. "It might be dangerous, but our club is _good_. We'll be able to manage."

"Granger, you know if this was it and we went there as a last resort, you'd never forgive yourself," Draco said, not unkindly. "We have to try."

Hermione sighed.

"_Fine_," she said. "We'll go to Delphi. But when it all goes bottoms-up, you can count on me saying 'I told you so'."

"I wouldn't have it any other way," said Harry, grinning. "We'll leave this afternoon."

"We have enough togas?"

"For the _millionth time_, Ronald, the Greeks did _not_ wear togas," Hermione snapped, handing out bundles of linen. "They wore peplos, chitons, and other types of tunics, along with cloaks and sandals."

"That explains why they're not white, then," Ron said, holding up his tunic. "I thought togas were white."

"History is fairly definite that everyone would have worn brightly-dyed clothing in Delphi," Draco said, pulling on his own tunic. "White gets dirty too easily to be practical. It was saved for special occasions"

"Everyone have a tunic or a dress?" Harry called. "Change into it quickly, please."

Severus pulled his on tunic on before shedding the clothing he had on under his robes. He'd gotten a dark green tunic that was sleeveless, but he had an emerald green wrap to wear on top of it, which covered one of his sleeves.

"You got a chlamys?" Tom asked from next to him, pulling at his wrap. "Nice. I got a palla."

As best Severus could tell, a palla was just another type of wrap. He glanced around. Most of the guys had wraps of some sort on over their knee-length tunics, while the girls had long dress-looking clothes. The girls had also gotten flowers to put in their hair, while the guys got brooches to pin their wraps on with.

"Stolas," Tom said, nodding at the dresses. "It's good of her to differentiate our genders with the robes. We'll already look odd enough without much jewelry on."

"Everybody ready?" Harry called out. "Now, then- ah, Hermione..."

Harry's voice trailed off, his eyes large, and Severus turned to look.

Hermione was wearing a short, flowy chiton that looked more like a strapless dress than anything ancient. The dress was draped in the back and gathered around her waist, giving it a Grecian look; it was an immaculate white, and her skin glowed against it. She had on a gold armband, a golden bracelet, and gold-colored sandals, and as they watched, she pulled her fingers through her hair, magic dancing around her hands as her riotous curls waves softened to gentle waves.

"What?" Hermione demanded, weaving a rose into her hair above her ear.

"Just, ah-" Harry cleared his throat. "You look a lot different than the rest of us."

"Makes sense," Hermione snapped. "You're all wearing transfigured bedsheets. I just happened to have something appropriate in my bag."

"Did the Greek _wear_ strapless dresses?" Ginny asked.

"Yes. The Greeks were never ones much for covering themselves up," Luna said, her voice dreamy. "Some of the Greeks just wore chlamys without anything on underneath."

Severus looked down at himself. If he only wore his wrap, everyone would be able to see his bare chest and genitals from the side when he walked.

"I think it's very attractive," Luna added. "You look wonderful, Hermione."

"Thanks Luna," Hermione said. She glanced up at Harry. "What _now?_"

"That doesn't seem like something to wear if you want to avoid attention," Harry said.

"Oh, knock it off, Potter," Draco snapped. "If she's the one who's going to talk to the oracle, she damn better well look her best. You're just uneasy because you've suddenly realized your friend's got legs."

That she did – long, slender legs that seemed to go on miles. Severus found it hard to look away from them.

"Are we ready?" Hermione said, her tone warning.

"Um," said Harry. "Yes."

"Then let's go."

The leaders beckoned, and they all fell into transportation formation.

"On three," Harry counted. "Two, one-"

They transported.

The trip this time was like a whirlwind, spinning them around and around as they moved through time. The usual fogs enveloped them; this time they smelled of flowers, and Severus tried not to cough.

When they landed, he did cough, as did most of the others.

"What was with the smells?" Blaise asked, coughing. "That's new."

"I suspect it's because we're treading on the territory of anciently powerful witches and wizards," Hermione informed him. "Take that as you will."

"Stay close everybody," Harry directed. "We'll leave the alley carefully in a line. Stick with your squad. Try to blend in, dodge any questions about where you're from, and keep your eyes open for a good bargain."

Severus glanced down at his money belt. Officially, they had all been told to buy any scrolls relating to magic they could find, as well as anything that had an enchantment on it. Severus suspected it was strictly a backup measure – if the Oracle agreed to tell Hermione the spell she needed, she'd never have to read through anything they found.

"Stay together. Let's go."

They followed Harry out of the alleyway they had landed in out onto the streets, and Severus got his first glimpse of Delphi.

Market booths and stalls were everywhere, with vendors and merchants calling out, enticing the citizens walking about to come and buy their wares. To his surprise, Severus realized he could understand their calls – he hadn't realized the leaders had taken the time to enchant their new clothes with translation charms. Richly color robes and tunics filled the street, and there was a glitter of jewelry and the bronze armor of the guards that sparkled throughout the streets.

Their clothing seemed to match that of the others well enough that their group could blend in. Slowly, squads started to break off, perusing the wares and looking for valuables. Severus stopped to buy a band of leather from a vendor to tie his hair back with, the afternoon sun hot on his back.

"Here. Let me."

Hermione pulled the band from his hair behind him, then reached up and smoothed his hair back, fitting it into a smart tail at the bottom of his head. He turned to face her, and she looked him over approvingly.

"There," she said, nodding. "Much better."

She smiled at him, dazzling him, and Severus felt as if he'd been struck.

There was something different about her, suddenly. She was still wearing the same short white dress, but suddenly it seemed to be _more._ There was an ethereal glow around her, her skin and eyes radiant, and Severus' mouth had dried up.

"You are beautiful," he told her, taking her hand and pulling her to him. "Hermione, you look like a goddess."

Hermione laughed, blushing.

"You flatter me," she said, smiling, and she started walking back up the path. "But be careful of your words, here – should a true goddess overhear, she might take offense."

She laughed and went on ahead, and Severus watched after her in a daze.

"There are already gods and goddesses here," Tom said, drifting over to join him. "We have already been noticed."

"There are?" Severus looked around.

He did not see anything out of the ordinary, as far as he could tell. There were just people milling about and gossiping happily, as there had been earlier. Sure, there was a man over there looking at them, but he-

Severus stopped.

No. There was something different about the man.

The man was strikingly handsome, Severus could tell objectively. He had a full head of short, dark curls, and his eyes smoldered. He was wearing a scarlet red cape, and Severus suspected that if the wind moved the right way, he would find he wore nothing else.

But still...

There was something else about him, still. There was an odd, glowing aura to him, the same aura he'd sensed around Hermione. It wasn't just power, he thought. It was something more.

"I think that's Ares," Tom said quietly, nodding to the dark figure. "And I'd bet that's Apollo over there."

Severus turned to see a handsome young man with long, golden hair observing Hermione, his hands caressing a bow. He wore a blue cloak and a loose wrap around his waist, his entire torso bared to be seen. His eyes looked golden as well, and they followed Hermione as she moved about the crowd. He, too, had the same glowing aura about him, and Severus wondered what it was.

When he asked, Tom snorted.

"You haven't figured it out?" he asked. "It's their immortality. I suspect we can only see it because we're witches and wizards ourselves."

Severus stared at him.

"Immortality?" he asked. "Then how- Hermione-"

"Come _on_," Tom said, rolling his eyes. "Hermione's become master of space and time. You don't really think she'd let herself fall prey to old age."

The thought had never occurred to Severus, quite honestly. It had occurred to him that every time Hermione transported back with someone wounded to restore their consciousness in their unwounded body that she must be restoring her own body as well, but that was just a matter of unaging her body by a few months. He had never considered the effect on her years.

"That's why you stopped pursuing the Horcruxes," Severus realized. "You intend to find her secret."

"I intend to have her teach me, yes," Tom said, raising an eyebrow. "Don't you?"

Severus had never considered the question. He preferred to ignore the frightful knowledge of his own inevitable death, having never come to terms with his own mortality.

"Then- all those she restored?" he asked Tom. "Are they immortal as well?"

Tom sniffed. "Hardly. Just a bit younger than they were. I suspect at the end of all this, she'll restore us all to our seventeen year-old forms before taking us back."

The thought hit Severus like a punch in the gut.

"Take- take us _back?_"

Tom looked at him.

"Surely you realize that the adventure will come to an end eventually," he said. "What do you think happens at the end? We all go live happily-ever-after in Hermione's timeline, regardless of our other selves?"

Severus didn't know _what_ he had thought would happen, but he had never before considered that things would just _end._ Sure, he knew at some point their adventuring would cease, but that was eons and eons in the future, it had seemed. There was still so much to learn! Would they really abandon him, shoving him back to his place at Hogwarts, still trapped in the hellish choice he would be forced to make? Would Hermione leave him, never to laugh and smile at his sarcastic remarks again? After all he had done to help?

Forcing himself to calm down, Severus took several long, deep breaths, ensuring he wouldn't hyperventilate.

"I don't know what I thought would happen," he admitted, and Tom looked over at him. "But I'll tell you what _won't_ happen."

"What?"

"Me letting go of Hermione without a fight."

Tom's eyes gleamed, but Severus ignored him, his eyes catching on a small figure hiding in the shadows.

The figure was young, even younger looking than Apollo had been, and Severus would have pegged him as no older than ten or eleven. He had short, golden curls, and only a small cloth tied around his waist. He, too, had the telltale glow of the immortals.

Severus watched as the youth took an arrow from the quiver on his back and carefully took aim with a golden bow, and then Severus and Tom were both sprinting through the street.

"Hermione!" Severus yelled out, his muscles screaming in protest. "Hermione, run!"

Hermione turned, and Severus watched in horror as the arrow hit her, throwing her to the ground. Instantly, the two gods were at her side, and then they were gone, Hermione gone with them.

Severus ran to where she had been, falling to his knees, examining the ground for any trace evidence he could find. Someone was screaming, howling at the world, and distantly, Severus realized that it was him, yelling at the sky for taking Hermione away.

"Severus. _Severus!_"

Someone slapped him, and Severus whirled around, his eyes on fire, his wand poised.

It was Harry.

Severus felt his fury start to ebb.

"Let's go to an inn and work this all out, okay?" Harry said, his hands held up in truce. "We'll find Hermione. I swear it."

Severus held his wand level with Harry's nose.

Harry's eyes never flickered.

"If we don't find her," Severus warned, "I will hold _you_ personally responsible. Do you understand?"

Slowly, Harry nodded.

Scowling, Severus shoved his wand back into his holster. He stalked off down the street, turning to glare back at Harry and Tom.

"Well?" he demanded. "Are you coming or not?"

They scampered after him. Severus headed directly towards the inn at the base of the Oracle's mountain.

If nothing else, the Oracle would be able to tell him what had become of Hermione – the Oracle had a direct line to Apollo, even if her prophecies were lies. He could invade her mind and Apparate along her bond with her god, if need be, and then...

Severus smiled grimly. He had never killed a god before.

He supposed there was a first time for everything.


	20. Chapter 20

**Chapter 20**

By the time all the members settled in at the inn, it had grown late, and Severus was fuming.

"When do we find Hermione?" he demanded. "What are we going to do?"

"Draco is handling it," Harry told him firmly. "There are old Pureblood rites for this kind of thing that he knows. After everyone here starts dinner, the leaders will meet over a feast in the adjoining room. We'll get our answers there, okay?"

Severus' eyes were like flint. "Fine."

Draco came to the door and gestured, and the leaders all quietly slipped away from their squads. Severus followed, and he was unsurprised to see Tom come along as well.

"Let them try to stop me," Tom said with a shrug. His eyes glittered. "I'd like to see them try."

As they went through to the next room, Ginny closing the door behind them, it quickly became apparent what Draco had been doing.

All around the rectangular table sat gods.

At the middle position was Zeus, recognizable only by his crown and beard. He was by far the largest of the gods, and if he hadn't reeked of such power, Severus would have called him fat. To his right sat a stern looking woman who wore a silver crown – Hera, Severus deduced. To Zeus' left sat another large man with a trident that Severus could recognize as Poseidon, and then he went down the line, mentally ticking off Olympians in his mind – Athena, Artemis, Aphrodite, Demeter and Hestia, and then Hermes and Hephaestus as well.

Apollo and Ares were missing.

Severus was hard pressed not to curse them all.

"Mighty Olympians," Draco opened with. "You honor us with your presence. We humbly beseech-"

"Yes, yes, get on with it," Zeus snapped. "What do you want with us? And just who are you?"

Draco blinked, and then recovered neatly.

"One of you has stolen one of our leaders," he said. "A woman called Hermione. We would like to have her back."

"You can't," Aphrodite said, smiling. "We've taken her."

"Sorry," Hermes added, grinning. "Your loss."

"Why have you taken her?" Harry demanded, and the gods all turned to look at him. Zeus's gaze was powerful, but Harry stared him down, his own green eyes fierce. Finally breaking, Zeus waved at Hera, who stepped forward.

"We sensed your arrival immediately," she said, looking over the leaders carefully. "Never before have we sensed equals with like power. When we cloaked ourselves and came down from our mount to investigate, we discovered the truth – you were like us, but not. None of you had tasted of our nectar, and thus were still only men."

"All except one," Poseidon cut in. "Your Hermione glows with the glow of an Olympian. It is clear she belongs with us, and we will keep her."

"She immediately caught the gaze of two of my sons," Zeus said, his voice a low rumble, like thunder. "The god of war-"

"Ares," Severus said, folding his arms. "And Apollo. We know."

Zeus looked surprised.

"Well met," he said. "Yes, those two. Both would take her as wife."

"I sent along my son, Eros," Aphrodite said, smiling impishly. "To help Ares out, of course – if he can't have me, the least I can give him is another beauty-"

"Apollo was faster," Demeter countered. "It was he that swept her up as soon as she was struck."

"_Neither_ of them has she chosen," Zeus said grudgingly. He looked down on Harry. "Your Hermione refuses to open her eyes since she was struck, knowing she will love the first man she lays eyes on. Apollo and Ares both try to entice her, but she will not. They remain at a standstill, now."

"Then she is not bound to either of them," Harry said firmly. "We want her back."

Aphrodite's face changed from a vision of loveliness into a twisted expression of hatred.

"What makes you think you can make demands of us, little man?" she spat. "We are _gods_."

"We have with us the secret of the Titans."

They all turned to look at Tom. His arms were folded, and his eyes were fierce.

"We know the secret of the Titans," he told them again, firmly. "We know how they survive even mortal wounds."

The Olympians exchanged uneasy looks.

"None of you glows with immortality," Hestia said, her voice soft. "Why not?"

"We have not done the rituals," Tom acknowledged. "But we know how, and they can be performed at any time."

"What's to stop us from smiting you here and now, then?" Aphrodite challenged, but Zeus held her back.

"This is a holy place," he said sternly. "Here, none of us will cause them harm."

Aphrodite fell back, fuming.

"You have knowledge we would like," Hephaestus said, speaking for the first time. "Will you bargain your knowledge with us?"

"Depends," Harry shot back. "Will you give us the knowledge we seek and Hermione in return?"

The gods exchanged glances.

"We will strike an accord," Zeus said. "You will teach us how we can defeat the Titans, and we will teach you what knowledge you seek. If, at the end of our exchange, your friend has still refused the attentions of both gods that seek her, she is yours. But if she opens her eyes and looks upon one of them, she will be ours."

"Deal," Harry said firmly. "Let there be exchange between us."

The gods broke into conversation, as did the leaders, and Harry beckoned Severus over.

"Are you _mad?"_ Severus demanded. "You guys can't go anywhere without Hermione and you know it!"

Harry looked surprised.

"I didn't know she told you that," he said.

Severus sneered. "So?"

Harry ignored his slight. "You're right," he told him. "We're up shit creek without a paddle if we can't get Hermione back. That's why you're going to save her – you and Tom."

"What?" Tom said, leaning in with surprise. "Us?"

"Yes, you," Harry confirmed. "The rest of us leaders will occupy the gods with our knowledge, and hopefully draw out of them the secret to rejoining parts of souls. While they're busy, you two will find and rescue Hermione. Got it?"

Severus and Tom exchanged a look.

"She could be anywhere," Tom said finally. "Where do we look?"

"I suspect," Harry said vaguely, "that someone around here might have an inkling of an idea of where to go."

Turning to look out the window, Severus saw the long path leading up the mountain to the Oracle.

"Come on," he said to Tom, pulling on his shoulder. "Let's go."

"This is pants," Tom swore, stumbling again. "Can't we wait for daylight?"

"Not if we want to get her back," Severus said warningly. "Keep walking."

"Bloody stupid mountain," Tom muttered. "And we can't Apparate to the top because-?"

"Do _you_ want to clue the Olympians in on what we're doing?" Severus demanded. "Now come on."

The city sparkled beneath them, candle lights flickering in windows. As they reached the top, Severus paused to catch his breath, before marching on.

"The Oracle is closed," said a tall guard in bronze armor, stepping forward to meet them. "Come back tomorrow."

Severus pulled out his wand.

"We will _not_," Tom said emphatically. "We have worked too bloody hard to get up this mountain, and I'll be _damned_ if I just walk right back down."

The guard looked at either ends of their wands.

"You have the feel of the Oracle's lord," he said slowly. "You feel like Apollo."

"We're bloody well not," Severus snapped.

"But you're going to let us in, regardless," Tom said warningly, gesturing with his wand. "Unless you want to see how _we _smite people to the ground."

The guard stared at them for a long moment before he moved to the base of the structure, pulling a large wooden door open.

"Go," the guard said.

They walked into darkness, and the door shut heavily behind them.

"Stupid Greeks," Tom swore. "This was a bad idea."

"It was _your_ idea," Severus reminded him. "Hermione wanted to go to Pompeii."

"What, and have us dodge rocks from a volcano? That'd be lovely. _Loads_ less dangerous than traipsing around in a little town-"

"Hush."

They arrived at the end of the hallway, a dim light illuminating the chamber in front of them. A figure sat atop a tall stool, bent and hunched over, and she beckoned at them.

"Come closer," she said. "I have words for you."

Severus and Tom exchanged a glance before moving forward, and the crone cackled.

"So," she said. "What do you want to know?"

"We seek the spell to reunite fractured souls," Tom said, stepping forward. "Do you know it?"

The woman laughed.

"The spell you seek you already have," she told him. "You have thought of it and shirked away, you know it true. For you to kill yourself, you must die as well, in order to carry out your coup."

She laughed again, her fire crackling and throwing odd shadows against the rock behind her, and Tom looked unnerved.

"Go ahead," he said, pushing Severus forward. "Your turn."

Severus stepped forward, careful not to breath in the noxious fumes.

"Where is Hermione?"

The oracle laughed.

"So, the mule of magic would seek his mare," she proclaimed, eyes glinting. "And steal away the goddess new and fair." She paused, and Severus held her gaze, his eyes steady, before she cackled again. "Should you seek to steal the sun lord's bride," she said, grinning with wizened old teeth, "let the moon's maiden be the first you find."

There was a silence, and no more words were forthcoming.

"Thank you," Severus said firmly. He turned to Tom. "Let's go."

They strode back down the dark cavern, leaving the oracle cackling madly behind them. The door was open at the end of the tunnel, and the guard was gone.

"So," Tom said finally. "Big load of help that was, wasn't it?"

"She didn't tell us how to find Hermione," Severus said slowly. "But she gave us a good place to start."

"Oh? Where?"

Severus didn't answer. Across the top of the mountain, a woman was walking towards him, and as tom saw her, he fell silent as well.

The woman was a goddess, glowing with immortality as well as an unearthly glow in the moonlight. She wore furs and had a bow strapped across her back, and her hair was bound back into a long braid.

"Artemis," Severus said, inclining his head. "You honor us. What can we do for you?"

The moon goddess looked them both over.

"Don't lie to me," she said, her voice curt. "You called me here. What for?"

Severus' lips curled. He hadn't known the gods could be summoned by thought.

"Your brother has stolen our friend," Severus told her. "You know where she is. Tell us."

Artemis' eyes blazed.

"Why would I tell you?" she demanded.

"Because she is untouched," Severus told her, his lips curling. "She is a virgin, and therefore under your protection. Even now, she calls out to you for help."

Artemis' gaze was one of cold fury, but Severus stood his ground.

"My brother would make her a queen among men, a goddess of the sun," she said finally. "Most women would be honored to be chosen."

"Still," Severus challenged. "Should it not be her choice as well?"

Artemis fell silent, judging him, and Severus was careful not to let his gaze falter.

"I will take you," Artemis said abruptly. "One of you only. I will get you into his tower to your friend. Your escape from there is your own to devise."

"Your terms are acceptable," Severus said, inclining his head, though his heart was thumping erratically. He turned to Tom. "Tom-"

Tom shook his head. "Go on ahead," he said, smirking. "I know you're not about to let me be the one to save her."

Severus nodded gratefully. He turned back to the goddess and straightened.

"I am ready," he told her, and she nodded.

"Good."


	21. Chapter 21

**Chapter 21**

"Your Hermione is alone in the top floor of the tower right now," Artemis told Severus as she whipped the reins again. "As the night fades, my brother has gone to ride his chariot across the sky, and Ares is gone, summoned by Aphrodite in a jealous rage."

Severus watched as daybreak crawled after them across the sky as they ran in her chariot, carting the moon along behind them. "What should I do?"

"I suspect," Artemis said, "that your Hermione already has a plan. She does not seem the type to lie in wait for a rescue."

Severus smiled. "She's not."

"Be ready, now," Artemis warned. "You have one jump to get in, and then you are on your own."

Severus readied himself as a huge, towering structure emerged. He could see an open window on the top floor, and he braced himself.

"Go!"

Severus hurled himself through the air, flying forward with the momentum of the moon's chariot still. He ducked at the last second and hit the ground inside the chamber hard, rolling as he landed.

"Who's there?" Hermione's voice demanded. "Who's there now?"

"It's me," Severus gasped. He coughed, regaining himself. "Hermione, it's Severus. I've come to help."

"Severus!" Hermione sounded ecstatic, and Severus turned to look.

Hermione was sitting on a small bed inside the tower, her eyes still firmly shut. In her hand was a thorn dipped in some sort of blue ink, and Severus blinked.

"Hermione," he breathed, looking at her fully. "What have you done?"

All down Hermione's left arm were woven knots and bands of tattoos. They ended in a triskele on the back of her left hand, and Severus thought he could see swirls of other Celtic knots underneath her white dress, ending on the bone of her ankle.

"I'm binding myself to the earth," she told him. "I've almost done it, but I can't finish this part without someone else. Please, I need your help."

"Hermione..." Severus moved over to her, aghast. "Your skin... it's all tattooed."

"It's fine, Severs," Hermione told him. "I know what I'm doing. Here – eat these."

She pushed a plate at him full of pomegranate seeds, and Severus took a few just to quiet her.

"Fine, Hermione," he said, swallowing. "But I don't see-"

His words died away as a foreign presence entered his head, filling his mind with an overpowering sense of glowing light.

"That's Gaia," Hermione said happily. "She's going to help me. Just listen to her, and she'll tell you how to finish the tattoos."

"Hermione, I-"

"There's no time," Hermione said, shoving the bowl of ink and thorn into his hands. "Just do."

Severus took the bowl reluctantly, recognizing the ink as crushed berries from the nearby fruit bowl. He hesitated, looking at her unmarred foot.

"...are you sure?" he said finally, and Hermione tutted at him, even with her eyes closed.

"Severus," she said. "Have you ever known me to do anything halfway?"

With a sigh, Severus bent over her form and put the thorn to her skin.

Hermione passed out immediately, but the warm presence in the back of his mind told him that this was normal, that this was part of Druidic binding. Hermione was experiencing the full extent of Gaia's power, and it was too much for her human consciousness. It wasn't until he finished tattooing the interference loop on her that Gaia's presence would be reduced to something Hermione could comprehend and interpret without losing her mind. He supposed he was lucky that Hermione had worked some kind of magic on the pomegranate seeds so Gaia could temporarily talk to him. Without that...

Severus worked quickly, keeping an eye on the dawning sun. Apollo would be back soon, he knew, and if this really was their only hope...

He kept tattooing, his eyes sharp.

Her skin was so smooth under his hands, the sole of her foot like silk. His hand stroked it idly as he reloaded the thorn with ink. Even as he tattooed, he could see her leg stretched out in front of him, a long expanse of skin. Her tattoos looked beautiful, now, decorating her and vanishing up her skirt, and Severus swallowed hard and went back to work on the inhibitor loop.

Gaia guided him on the finishing touches, and he put the thorn down and set the bowl aside.

"All right," he told the odd presence in his mind. "Go for it."

The presence nodded, and then was gone.

Hermione reacted in front of him, stretching and crying out as she felt the full power of the earth touch her, flowing through her tattoos and into her magical core. Her eyes flew open, meeting his, and Severus panicked.

"No- Hermione-!" He threw his hands over her eyes, knowing he was already too late. "You can't-!"

"What is all this?"

Severus and Hermione both turned. Apollo was standing in the doorway, his head ringed with a crown of fire.

"You steal my bride?" he accused. "You _dare-!_"

"I'm not your bride!" Hermione cried out. "Severus, come on!"

She pulled him to the window, tugging on his hand, and they jumped out, Apollo screaming after them as they fell.

"Hermione!"

Severus screamed, the ground rushing up to meet him, but suddenly, he wasn't falling anymore, he was flying...

He opened his eyes.

He was flying, flying over the plains, the sun beaming down on him. He was riding an great black horse with wings, only the wings were of skin, instead of feathers, and the horse's skin was taut against its bones.

"You're a thestral," Severus breathed, wrapping his arms around Hermione's neck. "That's why some of the others could see you while some couldn't."

With a great beating of her wings, Hermione flew higher, Severus holding onto as they went.

They flew over a great river and another plain, and Severus saw a group of wild horses running underneath them as they flew. Gradually, they coasted down over a ravine and into a glade, where Hermione landed. Severus got off, stroking her mane lightly, and then Hermione transformed back.

"Hermione," he said, relieved. "We made it. We have to tell the others-"

"Shhh," Hermione said, stepping towards him and putting a finger against his lips. "We have other concerns now."

Severus looked down at her, seeing her eyes dilated, and his own breath caught.

"Hermione," he said, tentative. "Hermione, what-"

"Oh, be quiet, Severus," she chided, and she leaned up, sealing her lips on his.

It was like tinder catching fire, and Severus could feel the full extent of her power in her kiss.

Heat surged through Severus as he reacted, kissing her back for all he was worth. He pulled her head closer to him, his other hand cupping her cheek as he tangled his tongue with hers, emotion and heat searing through his skull. It was wild, it was primal, and it sent a feeling of liquid heat through his blood to pool around his middle. Hermione was scrabbling at him, pulling him closer, and she'd somehow gotten a hand underneath his tunic to caress his chest, driving Severus mad. He nipped at her lips and she whimpered against him, and he licked over the small bites, and her whimper turned into a heady moan.

They were wearing too much. Hermione tugged his tunic and wrap off, taking breaks from his lips only briefly to tug the garments over his head, and he pushed her dress down to expose her breasts, bending to take a nipple into his mouth, and she moaned and writhed against him.

Somehow, they lost their balance, and then they were falling backwards, Hermione with him, limbs entangled with his, kissing him still, possessive and fiery and unable to stop.

Her hand reached down between them, stroking him, and Severus swore and pulled back, breaking them apart, gasping.

"Hermione," he said, and he was shocked to hear how raw his voice was. "Hermione, what-"

Hermione's eyes were a liquid with desire as she came over and kissed him once again. After several mindless moments, Severus pulled back once more.

"Hermione," he said. "What are we- what-"

"Druidic binding ritual," she told him, kissing her way down his front. "Apollo is coming to kill you. Have to protect you. Sex magic – old, powerful. It'll bind our lifespans together."

The thought was slow to process in Severus' mind. "It'll- bind us? Together?"

"That too."

She kissed him again, and Severus kissed her back, all his emotion welling up inside of him. Hermione was kissing him, wanted to bind herself to him, to _him_, and she would be his...

She was grinding on top of him, her core wet against his erection, and Severus pulled back from her kiss reluctantly.

"Hermione," he gasped. "We- we can't-"

"Oh, why not?" Hermione moaned, grinding against him, and Severus swore.

"Hermione. Hermione, listen to me," he said, sitting up and grabbing her upper arms. "Hermione, you've been struck by Eros' arrow, and I was the first man you saw. The lust burning through your veins right now is artificial. We have to stop."

Hermione paused to look at him, tilting her head, and Severus relaxed slightly.

"Don't you want me?" she asked him, and Severus laughed.

"Hermione, I _love_ you," he told her, grinding himself against her center, making her gasp. "Of course I want to do this with you. I've dreamed about it for weeks, now. I love you, and I will take anything you give to me and be grateful for it, even if it's just a smile, but I can't let you do this to yourself. You've been bewitched – you're not-"

She moved suddenly, pinning his arms down above his head, and she ground against his hips once more.

"What," Hermione said, "if I told you I love you too?"

"I _told _you this, Hermione," he said, nearly mindless with her heat against him "Eros' arrow-"

Hermione scoffed.

"Bully for his arrow," she said. "I burned the damned toxins out of my system the second you were done binding me to the earth. Why did you _think _I did it? I could have transformed and flown away at any point, you know."

Severus' heart leapt.

"But then- you-"

"I've loved you for ages," Hermione said, kissing him fiercely. "Ever since I watched you transform into that beautiful horse."

She sank down onto him, and Severus saw stars.

"You love me-?" he gasped, holding her hips. "You mean it?"

Her eyes held his, open to him; he was falling into her mind, feeling all her love and wanting and longing for him. He was just meeting her, and he could feel her first glimmers of attraction as they bantered about the Blood Replenishing potion. He was watching himself in the Incan temple, feeling a rush of respect and gratitude, and then he was looking up into his own eyes after the healing in the Chinese pagoda, feeling a rush of desire. He was holding himself on the mock battlefield, everyone else unconscious, tracing his lips lovingly before finally awakening him, staying to talk with him before going to get the others. He was watching himself in the streets of Delphi, unable to stop himself from running his hands through his hair under the guise of helping him tie it back-

He broke away, gasping, and he pulled her down to kiss her fiercely, thrusting up inside of her, and Hermione cried out.

"I love you," he told her, his eyes holding hers, all his shields down. "Hermione, I love you-"

"I love you," she cried out. "Ah, more, Severus, more-!"

He rolled them over and thrust into her deeply, kissing her breast as she keened and wailed. Beneath them, the earth shook, plants growing and flowering around them, but Severus ignored it as he gave her more and more.

By the time they had both finished, lying next to each other in the nude, panting, a giant willow tree had grown up next to them, shadowing them in a friendly shade.

Catching his breath, Severus managed to roll over and meet Hermione's eyes.

"Hello, love," he said, pushing a piece of her hair behind her ear.

Her eyes were soft.

"Hi," she said, and she leaned over to kiss him. It was sweet and nearly blinding in its innocence and love, and Severus felt a sense of loss when she finally pulled back.

She looked up at the tree, surprised, then she began to laugh.

"Think Gaia's happy with us?" she said, her eyes dancing.

Severus chuckled. "I'd imagine so."

She leaned down and kissed him again, moving against him, and Severus was only too happy to respond, all worry of Apollo gone.


	22. Chapter 22

**Chapter 22**

"You've stolen my bride!"

Severus raised an eyebrow at the god and smirked. "I believe she _chose _me. You'll notice I didn't have to steal her away like you."

Apollo raged, grabbing his sword, but Zeus steadied him.

"He has won her, my son," he told him. "She is not for you."

"We all good to go now?" Harry asked Zeus, smirking. "Our bargain completed?"

Zeus sighed and nodded.

"Our trade is at an end," he proclaimed. "You may gather your people and return."

One by one, they filed out of the room where the gods were, seating themselves among the other members, who were enjoying a late lunch.

"Think he was angry enough?" Ron said, nudging Severus.

Severus smirked. "I was surprised he didn't immediately start smiting."

Ron chuckled, and from next to him, Hermione laughed.

"Once he saw the bindings, I must say, I was expecting it," Hermione said, shaking her head ruefully. "I was ready to transport us away in a second, if need be. Luckily, he just seemed on the verge of passing out."

Severus smirked. "_I_ was on the verge of passing out," he told her, holding up his left hand. "It never occurred to you to mention that I'd end up with these things all over my skin as well?"

Her eyes sparkled at him. "I didn't think you'd mind."

"Ugh. Barf. Get a room," Ron chided, and Hermione laughed and tossed her head.

It was amazing how much better he felt, Severus thought, looking around the room with good humor. Now that Hermione had told him she loved him and bound them together, he didn't think he would ever be able to stop smiling. Even in the face of the coming battle, he felt confident and proud.

"Can we focus on the matter at hand?" Harry said, his tone plaintive. "We do have a Dark Lord to take down."

"Right." Hermione turned to face Harry, and Severus watched as the other squad leaders crowded in. "So what's the plan?"

Harry turned to Tom, who looked grim.

"The gods told us – there is no spell that can both gather together lost soul bits and existing Horcruxes," he said. "We can't wait until we've destroyed all Voldemort's Horcruxes to try and get the little bit that floated away, either – we'll have to do that part first."

"Then how will we do it?" Ron asked, listening.

Severus and Hermione exchanged a glance. Severus suspected he already knew, and he wondered if part of Hermione had thought it would come down to this from the start.

"We use me," Tom said finally. "If I sever my soul, and you cast the soul-healing spell on me, the Incan one, Voldemort's missing soul piece will come back and heal to me as well."

Ginny, Luna, and Blaise all nodded, but Draco looked horrified.

"That's ridiculous," he said, his voice sharp. "No one's going to go about severing their soul. And even then, it'd heal with you, so you'd have to die-"

Draco broke off, seeing Harry's determined expression, and his face set into a scowl.

"No one is dying," Draco said flatly. "No one."

"Too many already have," Tom said. "We can stop it. Today."

"This isn't your decision, Draco," Harry snapped. "You're a squad leader. You know nothing about this."

"He's right," Hermione said, her voice quiet. "It's his choice, Draco. We can end it now."

Draco looked from Harry to Ron to Hermione to Tom, not liking what he saw there.

"Is this really the answer?" he asked, his voice angry. "Was this your plan all along?" he asked Hermione. "Make friends just you could sacrifice Tom?"

Hermione recoiled at his words, and Severus glared at Draco.

"Hermione wasn't the one who wanted to come to Delphi and learn the truth," Severus spat. "If I remember, it was you who insisted. Hermione would have searched for years for better answers if there was a chance this could be avoided."

Draco fell back, looking chagrined, and he glowered down at his food.

"Why so upset?" Tom scoffed. "It's not _you_ who's going to die."

"_No one_ should have to die," Draco said, his voice flat. "And I don't like that you're being used like this. Using people is something Voldemort does, not something we should do. I know what it's like to be used."

"You've atoned for that, Draco," Ginny said, but Draco went on.

"Besides, we're the good guys," Draco said, angrily. "We shouldn't have to sacrifice people on our team-"

"Oh, come on," Tom interrupted, annoyance tinging his tone. "You've known forever that Harry has a Horcrux inside of him, right? So now it'll just be two instead of one."

Draco's eyes widened, and his weren't the only set of eyes that turned to look at Harry.

"You're a Horcrux?" he breathed.

"When were you going to tell us?" Ginny demanded.

"Were you just going to die and let us put it together?" Luna asked, her voice unusually grounded for once.

"Since when?" Blaise wanted to know.

The leaders raised a clamor around him, and Harry held up his hand to hold them off.

"We suspected it for a long time," Harry told them. "Hermione confirmed it with her time work. Yes, I am a Horcrux. For us to truly defeat Voldemort, I will have to die too."

The leaders fell silent at his pronouncement.

"Isn't there-"

"No, Ginny," Harry said, cutting her off. "We have been adventuring in search of these answers. Now that we have them, we can't stick our heads in the sand and just pretend they're wrong."

He sighed.

"We will transport this evening," he told them. "When we battled the Death Eaters earlier, they were attacking Hogwarts. The ones that fled regrouped with Voldemort. We will transport to the Hogwarts Great Hall, where they are getting ready for battle. Make sure your squads are prepared."

He got up and went off, his dark mood following him like a cloak. To Severus' surprise, it was not Hermione who went after him, but Tom, who put a hand on his shoulder and spoke to him quietly, before they both left the room.

"Why Tom?" Severus asked Hermione, but Hermione shrugged.

"I've already told Harry everything I can," she said, "but it still doesn't come close to truly understanding what he's going through. I suspect that only Tom can – he's facing the same fate, after all."

Conversation after that was quiet and strained as the sense of the coming battle mounted on them, tension growing, and when they finally got up to get ready to transport, Severus found that though he knew he would come out of everything, he was terrified.

Even through everything, Tom was his friend.

Was this really the end...?

As they readied themselves for transport, Hermione stepped aside to make small speech.

"We are going to the present timeline as it stands," she said. "For many of us, it is a return home. For others, it will be a step into the surreal. You will see yourselves, as you might have been, had you taken other paths. I will remind you that the people you will see are not you, and you would do well to take everything in stride."

"I will _also_ remind you," she said, giving Harry and Tom and sharp look, "that although this is a serious fight, we are all well-prepared. Tarrying will only delay the inevitable, and it is better to get it over with now."

She resumed her place in Transportation formation, and Harry started counting down.

"Five," Harry said. "Four."

"That was a bit cold, don't you think?" Severus murmured to Hermione.

"Oh, bully for them," she sniffed. "If they just _listened_-"

"Two. One."

They Transported, and this time, reality screamed in at them from the sides, the fogs pressing in them malevolent and cruel. When they landed, there was a loud babble of noise, and Severus looked around.

They had arrived in the Great Hall, as expected. There were terrified children everywhere, and Aurors lining the walls, grim-faced. Some adults were bound and trussed up, and Severus wondered how bad things must have gotten to have Death Eaters running the school.

"Harry!"

Severus looked up to see an old Professor McGonagall rushing to him. Severus could hear Minerva next to him gasp.

"Oh, Harry," she said, falling back to look at him. "You left only a moment ago. What have you done?"

"What needed to be done," Harry said fiercely. "We're ready, now."

McGonagall looked at him for a long moment, nodded, and moved back. "Who have you brought?"

Harry smiled grimly. "Reinforcements."

The Young Adventurer's Club spread out, looking around in wonder. Severus thought he saw a grown Kingsley Shacklebolt among the Aurors present in the room, and another that looked suspiciously like Tonks.

"Get out the Horcrux," Harry said to Ron. "We need to be ready."

"Just what is the meaning of all this-?!"

The voice was sharp, cold, and cutting, and Severus whirled around in horror to see what he had become.

He was looking at himself, but a much older version of himself, one ravaged by time. His hair hung in lank, greasy curtains, and his skin was sallow, and there were lines around his mouth from how he scowled.

"It's the Headmaster," Padma Patil told him quietly. "He used to be our old Potions professor."

Severus experienced a split moment of horror as he processed that. He had done _what,_ now?

The older him stopped short as he caught sight of the young Severus, his eyes glittering.

"What," Snape said, dangerously, "is this witchcraft?"

Severus raised his chin and glared back at him.

"Not your concern," he informed him. "Go back to your quarters – you'll be safe there."

Snape looked as if he'd been struck, but Severus continued grimly on.

"You joined them, didn't you?" he asked. "You joined the Death Eaters. Are you still with them, or have you tried to redeem yourself to Lily yet?"

Snape looked murderous.

"Who are you?" he demanded.

"I'm you," Severus told him, and he felt Hermione squeeze his hand, spurring him on. "I'm what you could have been, had you not been so closed-minded and refused to run away. Joining the Death Eaters wasn't the only option, Snape, and you knew it – it was just the others were too scary to contemplate alone."

Snape's glare was vicious, but Severus held his gaze.

"Lily," Snape said finally. "I killed her."

Somewhere, Severus could hear James Potter gasp.

"I have no idea what you're talking about, but I sincerely doubt it," Severus sneered. "Even now, I can see that you're still in love with her, though I don't know why – if she died for her son, Harry, as I suspect, that would have been nearly twenty years ago. Shouldn't you have moved on?"

Snape had his wand out a moment later. _"Silencio!"_

Severus brushed it off with a shielding curse and aimed his own wand. _"Churasqayki!_"

Snape shielded, but the charm blasted right through it, wrenching his wand from his hand, sending it in an arc to land in the hand of the grimly-smiling Severus.

"Now," Severus asked him. "Will you listen?"

As Severus explained to Snape what they were going to do, he could see Harry and Hermione moving around, clearing a large circle of area. They put a jeweled crown on the floor in the middle.

"Will you help us?" Severus asked him finally, and slowly, Snape nodded.

"I've worked for the Order even before Lily's death," he told him. "Of course I will help."

Severus nodded, and Snape moved aside to stand by McGonagall, who looked fiercely proud of him. He glanced back to see Hermione looking apprehensive.

"Do we have the sword?" she asked Harry.

"No," Tom said, stepping forward. "I'll do it."

He held his wand aloft.

"_Fiendfyre!"_

A huge dragon of flame erupted from his wand, and everyone in the room screamed, shying back-

The dragon enveloped the diadem, and Tom jerked his wand sharply to the right.

"_Terminus!"_

The dragon was pulled back into his wand and vanished, leaving Tom panting, his eyes huge.

"Fiendfyre," Hermione said, her eyes large. "Cursed fire. I knew it could destroy the Horcruxes, but I never thought-"

"Hermione," Tom said, and his voice sounded choked. "Hermione- it hurts."

Hermione ran to him, putting her arms around him.

"I know, Tom, I know," she said, rocking him back and forth. "You tore your soul – of course it hurts. Give it a moment to settle, and I'll cast the healing spell, and it'll be better, I promise-"

Tom shuddered in her arms.

"I never thought it would feel this bad," he told her, his voice a quiet whimper. "Hermione, how could I have done this repeatedly? Killed so many people, if it feels like this every time?"

"You didn't," she told him. "Tom, you're not who you are here. This Tom Riddle never knew love."

Tom looked up at her, eyes shining with tears. "You loved me?"

"I watched you grow up," Hermione said, smoothing his hair from his forehead. "Of course I loved you. You were like a son."

Tom exhaled a shaky breath, a fragile smile touching his lips.

"It's settled, now," he said. "Do it- do it now-"

Hermione aimed her wand.

"_Purajmanta q'achi."_

A beam of blue light hit him, and Tom screamed. Severus could swear he could almost see the split in Tom's soul grinding back together, trying to close the hole.

"Look!"

Severus' eyes followed Ron's hand as he exclaimed, and he watched as a little black cloud floated in and settled into Tom's chest, and the blue light vanished.

"I- I can feel it," Tom said, his eyes suddenly bright. "I- I'm okay, again, but I can feel his _soul_-"

"Hermione!"

Severus was at Hermione in an instant, seeing her topple over as soon as the spell stopped.

"I'm fine," Hermione said weakly. "I told you already – casting it successfully would take me out of commission for at least an hour-"

"Have you already forgotten what all you've done?" Severus said sharply. "Hermione: who are you bound to?"

Hermione looked confused.

"You, Severus," she said. "But that doesn't help-"

"You're bound to the _earth_, Hermione," he said, fondness and exasperation leaking simultaneously into his tone. "You can call on the earth's energy as the Druids did, now. There's no need for you to be weak."

Hermione's eyes went wide. "Oh."

Severus wasn't sure if he felt like laughing or scoffing.

"There's just the one left," Harry said grimly. "Nagini. Young Adventurers, are you ready?"

There was a chorus of cheers, and suddenly all the adventurers had swords and weapons in their hands that glittered in their hands.

"Goblin-made," Ron said in satisfaction, seeing Severus' look of confusion. "They'll destroy Horcruxes. You didn't _really_ think we were just running around ancient temples for old books, did you?"

He smirked at Severus, and Severus couldn't help but smirk in response.

Harry handed Neville a large sword and said something to him, but Severus couldn't hear what he said from where he stood.

"Take down as many of the Death Eaters as you can, but most of all _find that snake_," Harry yelled. "Until the snake is dead, Voldemort won't be killed! Are you ready?"

The answering roar left Severus' ears ringing.

"Then _go!_"

They all raced from the Great Hall, Severus carrying Hermione.

"Just get me to the grass," she told him, her voice weak. "It should work as soon as my feet are on the bare ground-"

The other adventurers streamed past them as they ran toward the forest, where Death Eaters were running out to meet them furiously. Severus paused to set Hermione down.

The moment her bare feet touched the ground, her posture straightened, and Severus could see her strength come back to her. She took a deep breath, centering herself, and turned to face Severus. Her eyes opened, and they glittered with malice and revenge.

"Let's go kill the Dark Lord," she said, and Severus followed her into the forest, following the path Harry and Ron and Tom had run.

The forest was dark and dank, and Severus wondered how Hermione could tell where they were going. He caught glimpses of others as they through the trees – Neville – Fred – George – Regulus – Rabastan –

"Tom!" Harry yelled. "I've come to kill you!"

Hermione skidded to a halt, throwing out an arm to stop Severus, who skidded to a halt as well.

"What's he _doing?_" Severus whispered, horrified.

"Have you forgotten?" Hermione hissed. "He has to die."

"He's just going to _charge_ in there-?"

There was a _whoosh_, and then Lord Voldemort appeared, a crew of Death Eaters in tow.

Severus had never seen Lord Voldemort before.

His skin was a deathly white, too pale to be human, and his nose was flat with slits in it, like a snake's. His eyes were red and slitted, and he wore a giant snake draped over him like a boa.

"My, my, my," Lord Voldemort said. His voice was high and cold, and Severus shivered. "The Potter boy means to challenge me one-on-one?"

"Not just Harry," said a firm voice. "I do as well."

Only Lord Voldemort reacted visibly upon seeing Toms stride out from the forest: he recoiled.

"What magic is this?" Voldemort demanded. "What is this?"

"It's my back-up body," Harry told Voldemort, his eyes steely. "Should you kill me, I'll use your old one, and you won't be able to kill yourself with me in it – the spell you used all those years ago in the graveyard – it'll prevent it-"

"Then I'll just have to kill you both now, won't I?" Voldemort snarled.

Harry and Tom both raised their wands, but they were disarmed in a moment, their wands flying to Voldemort's hand.

"Why don't they use their _rings?_" Severus said, wringing his hands. "Hermione, they could-"

"They can't, Severus," she said, and her voice was final. "You know they can't."

Voldemort raised his wand.

"_Avada Kedavra!"_

There were dual flashes of green light, and both Harry and Tom lay still on the ground.

As if it were a signal they had all been waiting for, the other adventurer' rushed out from the trees where they hid, casting and dueling the Death Eaters furiously, disarming them left and right with the Incan spell. Neville was using his giant sword, chasing the giant snake away from Voldemort's body, and only then did Severus realize that _Voldemort was unconscious_, and that something was-

"Milord!"

Severus watched in horror as Voldemort got back to his feet, clearly shaken.

"What is going on here?" he demanded. "Who are these people? Why do they live?"

His Death Eater cowered beneath him, and Voldemort flew into a rage, grabbing Harry's body and dragging it with him back to Hogwarts.

"Come on," Hermione said, once Voldemort had gone. "We have to get Tom-"

"Are you mad?" Severus demanded. "He's dead- he's of no use to us now-"

"_Severus Tobias Snape,_"Hermione snapped. "Have you forgotten _everything_ we've done?"

He stopped short, watching as Hermione went to check Tom's heartbeat. Ron stepped out of the forest from behind a tree, watching.

"He back yet?" he asked.

"Not yet," Hermione said. "It took nearly a full three minutes with you."

Something clicked in Severus' mind, and he couldn't believe he'd forgotten. _Ron _had died already, and he had been _fine_...

"We need to carry him, then," Severus said, hoisting Tom's body over his shoulders. "We need to get back to the courtyard. Come on."

"Oi!" Ron called after him, as they all ran back. "A _Moblicorpus_ would have worked too, you know-!"

They arrived back at the edge of the forest in time to see Voldemort throw Harry's motionless corpse at the feet of Professor McGonagall, whose eyes shone with tears.

"There is your chosen one," Voldemort spat. "What hope have you now? Surrender."

"_Hi-ya!"_

There was a Chinese-sounding cry, and Severus turned just in time to see Neville slice the head off of the great snake that had been draped around Voldemort when he'd first appeared. He looked up, his face bloody, and grinned.

"That was your last," he said. "They're all gone..."

Voldemort's eyes widened, and Severus saw something he didn't expect in the Dark Lord's eyes.

Fear.

"You cannot kill me," he said, laughing, his voice high and cold. "There was a prophecy – only Potter had that power-"

From next to him, Severus saw Tom start to awaken, fidgeting, his eyes finally snapping open, and Ron and Hermione visibly relaxed. Ron stood.

"Then it's a bloody good thing," Ron said, stepping forward bravely, "that Harry's not really dead."

Voldemort turned to look at Ron, but only for a moment, for the next moment, Harry was getting up, standing. He looked at the black-stoned ring on his hand and took it off, replacing it with the orange one on his left. Severus turned to look at Voldemort, who looked horrified.

"Catch, Harry!" Hermione cried, and she threw him his wand. Harry gestured and summoned it to him with his ring, and Severus reveled at her foresight – he hadn't even thought to get his and Tom's wands-

"Your Horcruxes are gone," Harry said grimly. "Neville just killed the last. Want to wager your life in a fair duel to the death, now?"

Voldemort sneered, even through his terror. "You can't kill me. It's not how you work. You'd splinter your own soul."

"Luckily, yours is already fractured enough." Harry smiled, then, and Severus fought the urge to shrink back in horror. "Want to feel what it feels like to be healed?"

"_Avada Kedavra!"_ Voldemort yelled, but Harry sidestepped it unerringly, leveling his own wand at the Dark Lord.

"_Purajmanta q'achi."_

A beam of blue light hit Voldemort, and there was a terrified, earth-rendering, ear-splitting scream. The light held for a long moment, enveloping Voldemort, before his exploded in chunks, a twisted, black looking cloud escaping and fading a moment later, gone from the world.

"Harry!"

"_Harry!"_

Everyone was running out to him, now, crowding around him in a crush, and all around, Severus could see the bodies of his friends getting back up, and he boggled at the sight – Fred, Lupin, Tonks... without Hermione's blood donation, would they have all been lost?

Tom was with Harry, laughing, and Harry was laughing and clutching Tom back, unsteady on his feet from the powerful spell and unable to draw on the earth as Hermione had, and then a great cheer went up from the crowd, everyone sending sparks of green and white into the air.

"Severus. Severus!"

Severus turned to see Hermione beaming at him.

"We did it, Severus!" she cried, throwing her arms around him. "We did it!"

"You did it," Severus told her, his eyes warmed. "You and Harry and Ron. Me and the others, we only helped-"

"Don't be ridiculous," Hermione said firmly. "We wouldn't have been able to do it without the rest of you."

She pulled him down into a deep kiss, and Severus let the crowd's cheers wash over him as he lost himself in the unadulterated, magical joy of Hermione's lips and kiss.


	23. Epilogue

**Epilogue**

In the end, they didn't insist on returning everyone to their own timelines. They asked who wanted to stay.

Most of the adventurers had come from Hermione's timeline, Severus realized, watching as they rejoined their old crowds, triumphant returning heroes. Severus hadn't realized at the time. Abraxas Malfoy opted to return to his own timeline, determined to prevent his descendants in his timeline from ever turning into such a bigoted family. Severus was surprised to learn that Abraxas had come from a different one from the rest of them, on Draco's special request.

"We would have picked him up along with Tom, otherwise," she told him. "But Abraxas in most of the timelines didn't qualify – he'd already rendered his soul with a silly curse against a Muggle girl when he was fifteen. Draco wanted his family to have a chance, at least in some timeline – for there to be at least one timeline where the Malfoys weren't evil and wrong."

Lupin had elected to stay, not wanting to return to a past where painful, unrestrained monthly transformations would torture him for years more until the use of Wolfsbane was approved by the Ministry of Magic. Remembering the vicious Lupin he'd seen in the Shrieking Shack, Severus couldn't blame him – though, he suspected wanting to stay close to the pink-haired Tonks had something to do with his decision as well.

James and Sirius elected to return, which didn't surprise Severus in the slightest – he had suspected James would want to be reunited with Lily. Before they left, James pulled Severus aside to have a quiet word.

"I really am sorry, for everything," he said quietly. "I was rotten to you, and all along you were the hero that saved the day... the leaders think we didn't know, but we knew. If you hadn't gone to rescue Hermione-"

"It was nothing," Severus told him, shaking his hand firmly. "It was good to work with you."

James' lips quirked at that, and Severus ventured a question that had been plaguing him for a while.

"If you go back," he said, "aren't you going to die?"

"That's what I thought," James said, smirking. "But as it turns out, the Young Adventurer's Club showing up in the first place splintered the timeline. There's one path that leads to here, where Voldemort was finally destroyed and the Young Adventurer's never came calling from any of us, but there's a new path, still waiting to be written when we return. Sure, Voldemort's still there, but now..." His eyes glinted. "I reckon now that we know all this magic, we'll stand a decent chance of defeating him the first time around."

"Good luck," Severus wished him fervently, and he waved as Hermione transported Sirius, James, and their friends off.

"You're not going back?"

Severus turned to see Regulus, Tom, and Rabastan watching him. Severus raised an eyebrow.

"And leave Hermione?" he asked them. "Are you _kidding_ me?"

Regulus laughed.

"Always suspected it," he said, clapping him on the back. "I'm staying, too – me and Minerva. We're going to make a go of it here, in this timeline – we're thinking of moving to the colonies, teaching in a school there."

Severus looked at Rabastan, who shuddered.

"Me go back? Nope, sorry, I can't," Rabastan said, grimacing. "Not back to Rodolphus and his evil. Did you _see_ him when we captured him? I'm glad we didn't run into me – I'd about have died of the shame. Avery's _still _broken up about seeing his evil alternate-universe self – he's staying to work in the Ministry's Justice Department, I think."

Severus looked at Tom, who looked back at him. Their eyes met for a long moment, and then they were in each other's arms in a brotherly hug.

"Well," Tom said, clapping him on the back. "You got the girl. Good on you – she deserves someone like you."

"Not someone like you?" Severus asked, and Tom laughed.

"Nah," he said, shaking his head. "I reckon I'd always see her as a savior figure, and that's not healthy, not in a real relationship, and she'll always see me as a son she helped save. Sure, we'll work together, but I don't think we'll be able to be anything more." He smiled ruefully. "Bummer, isn't it? As a Triad, we could have ruled the world."

"Careful, now," Regulus warned. "We all saw how well that worked out for you the last time around."

They all laughed, and Tom looked back up at Severus, grinning.

"So, you're coming, right?" he asked. "I know these two pansies are happy to stick around and live normal, boring lives, but you're not about to do that, are you?"

"Coming?" Severus asked. "Coming where?"

"Coming on an adventure."

Severus turned to see Hermione, who had just reappeared, Harry, Ron, Luna, Draco, and Ginny in tow.

"Kingsley Shacklebolt – our time's, the one who's just been made Minister of Magic – offered us a deal," she said, smiling up at him. "Officially, we'll work in the Department of Mysteries, and we'll all have homes here, should we want to stop home from time to time. But the rest of the time, we'll be off adventuring."

"The Ministry Aurors were _very_ impressed when they saw what our members did with their rings," Ron said, grinning. "Blaise is staying behind to set up a Chinese Magical Institute."

Severus looked at Harry, raising an eyebrow. "And you don't want to stay behind?"

To his surprise, Harry flushed.

"I never asked for all the fame," Harry muttered, looking away. "I just did what I had to do."

Tom moved and clapped him on the shoulder.

"We all did," he said, and Severus wondered if he saw more than just gratefulness and understanding in Harry's eye. A moment later, Harry broke his gaze from Tom's, and his face was flushed.

"Regardless, I'd much rather be out adventuring, at least for a few years," he said. "The rest of the club can take up fixing society and putting the bad guys into Azkaban."

"And you know I'm not about to turn down a grant to finding tons of ancient knowledge," Hermione said, turning to smile up at him. "So? Are you in?"

Severus looked down into her eyes, took her hand, and kissed her. There was a chorus of _aww_'s from around the clearing, and when they broke apart, Hermione was blushing, and Severus smirked.

"You know I wouldn't let you go without me," he told her, kissing her knuckles. "Whenever you're ready."

They got into a spiral – a much smaller one, now that most of the members were gone, everyone touching Hermione's hand.

"Where are we going first?" Ron asked. "Pompeii? Ephesus?"

Hermione's eyes sparkled. "I was thinking Atlantis."

"_Atlantis?_" Ron said incredulously, his eyes shooting to Draco. "You told me that wasn't real!"

They were all still laughing when they transported away.


End file.
